Athletic Training Education Program Curriculum/Research Description
*updated March 25, 2008
Summer AM III
(3) HHP 500 Athletic Training Techniques
(3) HHP 537
Foundational Concepts for Management of Musculoskeletal Dysfunction
Fall First Year
(4) HHP 520 Cadaver Anatomy of the Trunk & Extremities
(3) HHP 581 Orthopaedic Evaluation I
(1) HHP 514 Orthopaedic Evaluation Lab I
(3) HHP 582 Orthopaedic Evaluation II
(1) HHP 515 Orthopaedic Evaluation Lab II
(3) HHP 553 Athletic Training Practicum I
Spring First Year
(3) HHP 512 Therapeutic Agents in Rehabilitation
(1) HHP 511 Therapeutic Agents Lab
(3) HHP 513 Therapeutic Exercise in Rehabilitation
(1) HHP 516 Rehabilitation Lab
(3) HHP 563 Athletic Training Practicum II
Fall Second Year
(3) HHP 525 Observation Experience
(3) HHP 527 General Medical Aspects in Athletic Training
(3) HHP 556
Research Methods in Exercise Science & Health
(3) HHP 573 Athletic Training Practicum III
Spring Second Year
(3) HHP 526 Clinical ~ Industrial Athletic Training
(3) HHP 531 Professional Behaviors for Athletic Training
(3) HHP 598 Clinical Research
(3) HHP 583 Advanced Athletic Training Practicum
(56) Total credit hours
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletic Training Education Program
Research Project Requirement for Master of Science Degree
The purpose of the research requirement is to ensure that students acquire specialized knowledge and skills that are essential for sound clinical decision-making. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making clinical decisions about the care of individual patients. The basic premise of this concept is that clinical decisions should be based on the integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available clinical evidence from systematic research, rather than being based primarily on observational studies, logical intuition, and expert opinions.
Currently, relatively little strong evidence exists to confirm the effectiveness of various therapeutic, rehabilitative, and preventive regimens that are commonly administered by athletic trainers. A student research project may be designed as an experimental study (i.e., comparison of a group of subjects who receive a treatment to a group of untreated control subjects), but an observational study design is acceptable. The latter option may involve pre-season collection of data believed to be relevant to injury risk for a particular cohort of athletes, with subsequent determination of traumatic events or symptoms that are presented during the ensuing sport season. Alternatively, it might involve documentation of changes in the status of injured athletes throughout the course of treatment for a given condition, with subsequent analysis to identify any unique or meaningful case characteristics that are relevant to future decisions about management of the same condition in other athletes.
Background information pertaining to the project’s purpose, methods used to collect data, results of data analysis, and clinical relevance of findings are presented on a 3 ft X 6 ft poster in a prescribed format (bullet points and graphic elements). Students are strongly encouraged to develop a research report manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed professional journal for publication consideration, but the academic program’s research requirement is fulfilled through development of a acceptable poster content.
