Working as a Graduate Assistant (GA) Athletic Trainer is a great stepping stone to becoming a professional in the sports medicine field. It allows young professionals to further develop his or her clinical skills, as well as gain experience and confidence as a newly certified athletic trainer. However, does the excessive workload and stress lead to burnout and work-family conflict? GA Athletic Trainers are required to balance clinicals, school, family, and teaching undergraduate-level courses. A typical work day for a GA in charge of a sports team can consist of rehabilitation in the morning, administrative work, teaching classes, pre-practice treatments, practice, post-practice treatments, miscellaneous job duties, and taking graduate level classes.
According to the research conducted by the University of Connecticut (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22892414),GA’s work an average of 40-hours per week, which is the same as a full-time employee. They found that if GA’s continue to work full-time work weeks plus maintain a rigorous academic load, it will eventually lead to burnout; especially for graduate assistants with multiple responsibilities.
For some, a graduate assistantship experience can be a very stressful time for a young athletic trainer, but the value of the experiences they receive in both the clinical setting and the academic classroom is priceless. When it comes time for graduation, graduates are more prepared for the real world and will also have received their Master’s degree. According to a study done by the NATA, 70% of certified athletic trainers have their Master’s degree. As an allied healthcare profession, we pride ourselves on being highly educated and knowledgeable professionals.
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