<p>My D was going to major in nursing next year as a college freshman. Now she tells me she would rather become an Athletic Trainer. I can’t believe the career opportunities and compensation in that field are nearly as good as nursing. I am floored by the news … it probably means grad school just to get an entry level job. On the fence about what to tell her.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t paint a bad picture – though the salary certainly is not high</p>
<p>[Athletic</a> Trainers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Athletic-trainers.htm]Athletic”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Athletic-trainers.htm)</p>
<p>This is a last minute decision … or urge on my D’s part. Just seems like nursing offers more segways and far greater stability.</p>
<p>So she’s still in high school?
She won’t declare her major until junior year at many schools.
Gives time to investigate her options.</p>
<p>Nightingale: your concerns are justified, IMHO. My wife is a fitness professional with many clients, gotten through years of dogged work and professional pursuit. Very rarely do “degreed” fitness people or athletic trainers enter the field with eyes open to the low wages, long hours and realities of the fitness world. </p>
<p>I can’t tell you the # of 23 y.o. people with a fitness/training degree who will apply at my wife’s gym, expecting to be paid $15/hour. No one gets paid that much and many quickly to other fields. And to be at a level like my wife, she’s had to pay her dues.</p>
<p>Want to give her a lesson? Have her, as an exercise, put in some apps at nearby gyms/fitness centers. She’ll get a quick eye-opening – and even some job offers (even though she has no degree). What will that tell her?</p>
<p>A lot of the growth in trainers is at schools. Our HS has 3 trainers. The work is usually afternoon and evenings (after school) and at sporting events, so not the greatest working hours, but the woman who took care of my D’s teams liked her job. When I hear ‘athletic trainer’ I don’t think of gyms or fitness people, but medical professionals.</p>
<p>The hours are horrible it seems … for the university or high school athlectic trainers … nights, weekends, Ahhhggg! Probably a great job when you’re 25 … but not 45.</p>
<p>Well for nusing she was looking into a “direct entry” program … that means freshman year. From what i hear you don’t just jump into nursing after your soph year. Too competitive.</p>
<p>It’s true that for stem majors you will want to begin your math & science req freshman year. But those will be needed in either major. She still has time to determine which degree she is more interested in.</p>
<p>Regardless of how you feel about athletic training, if your D no longer wants to be a nurse, don’t push her to pursue a BSN! Yes, it’s a big field. Yes, it’s a field where a first job pays a decent wage. But do you want to be cared for by nurses who don’t want to be nurses? And as in every other field, one’s first job is not the dream job. She’ll likely start as a floor nurse somewhere. If your d is changing her mind (and at her age, you should expect that), let her.</p>
<p>Many BS nursing programs require early action applications and the nursing program starting in freshman year. If she is waffling between both career paths, perhaps apply to nursing programs at schools that also offer athletic training. She could probably switch out of nursing into training, but it is usually very difficult, if not impossible to switch into a nursing program. On the other hand, there are many BS to RN programs out there now – BS is some other field, then go back to get the RN or an MSN. She definitely has some options open to her.</p>
<p>nightingale have you shown the numbers to your D ? I work in IT and am mystified when I talk to students who seem unaffected by money. They are really paying rather ridiculous salaries for STEM jobs today and most HS students don’t care. </p>
<p>The ones who seem to care are the single parents, first generation immigrants, or others who know the sting of poverty. Are we too well off to teach this to our kids ? There are only a few degrees of separation between what an athletic trainer does and what a PT in sports medicine does, but there salaries are in different worlds.</p>
<p>A family friend is currently in a graduate program for athletic training. He did his undergrad at Whitworth in Spokane. Their website has a lot of info about the program/degree. There were prereqs he had to complete freshman year, and a fairly rigid series of courses the remaining three years, so it would be difficult to change majors later.</p>
<p>I would think that the path to a more sustainable, better compensated career for Athletic Training majors would be ultimately to earn a DPT and be a physical therapist. Is that not something Athletic Training majors do? (Of course, nurses can probably do it, too, if they want.) It’s hard and very competitive, but it’s not as though becoming a trainer is a complete dead end.</p>
<p>Nightingale, I am a Certified Athletic Trainer. Feel free to ask questions here, via PM, etc. Definitely check out the NATA.org website and the Board of Certification website (bocatc.org). </p>
<p>I have a bachelors in health management (concentration: Athletic Training), hold a national certification through the BOC, a state license through the state of Illinois, and am currently pursuing a Masters in Medical Sciences with a concentration in pediatric sports medicine. I have been a certified/licensed athletic trainer for almost 3 years. </p>
<p>Every day when I step onto the court or field, I must be prepared to deal with life-threatening injuries. I handle concussions and have handled c-spine injuries on the field. I’ve also gotten to experience the thrill of seeing athletes return to their sport after serious injury. It’s a job I love day in and day out, even with some of the frustration that comes with it.</p>
<p>As I always say, Every Athlete Deserves an Athletic Trainer #AT4ALL</p>
<p>I got a BSN mostly because my mother wanted me to. She was a single parent (Dad died when I was eleven) who struggled to support us. She wanted me to get a degree that would be marketable anywhere and provide a good enough income to take care of myself no matter what. </p>
<p>So, I did it but I never really liked it. I sometimes cried in the car on the way to work (3rd shift in a big city hospital) because I dreaded going in. I did it long enough for DH and I to save up enough money to buy a house. In the meantime, I was preg. w/ S1.
Quit my hospital job just before he was born and have never used my nursing degree since then.</p>
<p>Nursing school is hard. If she doesn’t really want to do it, I wouldn’t force her.</p>
<p>I have two friends with children who are athletic trainers. Both are very happy. One of the kids mom was a nurse - she quit nursing.</p>
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<p>Not all STEM jobs have high pay levels. Actually, the S jobs tend not to do so well as the TEM jobs, perhaps because of the oversupply of biology majors compared to biology jobs (the chemistry job situation is not much better).</p>
<p>Then again, many students and parents seem to have the idea that all STEM jobs are high paying, not realizing that some are not.</p>
<p>D2 just got her BS in AT and has started PT school. I think she liked working with the athletes so much she almost didn’t want to go on to PT school. D3 is a junior on the same path, but she really agonized over the nursing school route too, especially giving up direct entry. Would your daughter be interested in PT? AT is a good undergrad for that, and the PT job outlook is fairly good. And your thought about her needing grad school to get a job in AT is probably right. My girls tell me that you pretty much need a master’s to get a job, not to mention that there is talk of making AT an entry level masters.</p>