Abstract

Context:  The debate over what the entry-level degree should be for athletic training has heightened. A comparison of retention and career-placement rates between bachelor's and master's degree professional athletic training programs may inform the debate. Objective: To compare the retention rates and career-placement rates of students in bachelor's and master's degree professional programs. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Web-based survey. Patients or Other Participants: A total of 192 program directors (PDs) from bachelor's degree (n = 177) and master's degree (n = 15) professional programs.
Intervention(s): The PDs completed a Web-based survey. Main Outcome Measure(s): We instructed the PDs to provide a retention rate and career-placement rate for the students in the programs they lead for each of the past 5 years. We also asked the PDs if they thought retention of students was a problem currently facing athletic training education. We used independent t tests to compare the responses between bachelor's and master's degree professional programs. Results: We found a higher retention rate for professional master's degree students (88.70% ± 9.02%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 83.71, 93.69) than bachelor's degree students (80.98% ± 17.86%, 95% CI = 78.30, 83.66) (t25 = −2.86, P = .008, d = 0.55). Similarly, PDs from professional master's degree programs reported higher career-placement percentages (88.50% ± 10.68%, 95% CI = 82.33, 94.67) than bachelor's degree professional PDs (71.32% ± 18.47%, 95% CI = 68.54, 74.10) (t20 = −5.40, P < .001, d = 1.14). Finally, we observed no difference between groups regarding whether retention is a problem facing athletic training (χ21 = 0.720, P = .40, Φ = .061). Conclusions: Professional master's degree education appears to facilitate higher retention rates and greater career-placement rates in athletic training than bachelor's degree education. Professional socialization, program selectivity, and student commitment and motivation levels may help to explain the differences noted. Verf.-Referat