Athletic Training Education Program Curriculum/Research Description
Summer AM III
(3) HHP 5500 Athletic Training Techniques
(3) HHP 5510 Foundational Concepts of Musculoskeletal. Dysfunction
(3) HHP 5525 Athletic Training Summer Practicum
9 credit hours
Fall First Year
(5) HHP 5600 Cadaver Anatomy of the Trunk & Extremities
(6) HHP 5610 Orthopaedic Evaluation
(2) HHP 5615 Orthopaedic Evaluation Lab
(3) HHP 5625 Athletic Training Practicum I
16 credit hours
Spring First Year
(3) HHP 5700 Therapeutic Exercise
(1) HHP 5705 Therapeutic Exercise Lab
(3) HHP 5710 Therapeutic Modalities
(1) HHP 5715 Therapeutic Modalities Lab
(3) HHP 5725 Athletic Training Practicum II
11 credit hours
Fall Second Year
(3) HHP 5810 Graduate Seminar
(3) HHP 5820 General Medical Aspects in Athletic Training
(3) HHP 5825 Athletic Training Practicum III
(3) HHP 5830 Research Methods in Sports Medicine
12 credit hours
Spring Second Year
(3) HHP 5900 Healthcare Finance and Administration
(3) HHP 5910 Professional Aspects in Athletic Training
(3) HHP 5925 Advanced Athletic Training Practicum
(3) HHP 5990 Athletic Training Research Project
12 credit hours
(60) 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's 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.
Marissa Jones (class '12) displays her Research Poster as part of
the Graduate Resesarch Day along with her co-authors Dr. Gary Wilkerson, Dr. Marisa Colston and Mr. Scott Bruce
