Minimum number of credits required to graduate: 80
Minimum Cumulative GPA required to graduate: 3.0
Faculty Director: Birgid Hopkins, MS, LATC, ATC, Associate Clinical Professor
The Master of Science in Athletic Training (MSAT) program prepares candidates to meet the growing demand for athletic trainers in college, universities, youth leagues, rehabilitation clinics, and community and commercial settings. Degree candidates combine passion for healthcare with the rewards of assisting patients in recovering from injuries and medical conditions.
Two Year Post-Baccalaureate Program (80 credit hours)
Career Opportunities
As awareness of sports related injuries such as concussions continues to rise, the demand for these skills among qualified Athletic Trainers is projected to increase a full 21 percent for 2022-faster than the average of any other career [1]. At the same time, community-based health awareness efforts are enhancing parents’ and coaches’ understanding of the risks of youth injury, which should continue to fuel demand for onsite athletic trainers.
The rising population of active, injury prone older individuals, coupled with employers’ concerns regarding on-the-job injuries and liability, are building demand in a wider range of settings than ever before, including:
- Physician offices, where athletic trainers serve in clinical roles complementing physicians
- Rural and urban hospitals, hospital emergency departments, and urgent and ambulatory care centers
- Clinics with specialties in sports medicine, cardiac rehabilitation, medical fitness, wellness, and physical therapy
- Occupational health departments in commercial settings including manufacturing, distribution, and offices
- Police and fire departments, municipal departments, and military bases
- Colleges, universities, and community-based youth sports leagues
- Performing arts, such as dancers, musicians, and acrobats
Admission Requirements:
- A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
- Pre-requisite courses with a C+ or better in the following courses: Anatomy and Physiology I & II, Chemistry I & II, Biology with lab, Statistics, Nutrition, one semester of Physics, Introduction to Psychology. Additional coursework in either biomechanics/kinesiology and/or exercise physiology is recommended.
- Preferred GPA minimum 3.0
Standardized test scores are optional. Merrimack College reserves the right to ask any applicant for additional supplemental requirements in consideration of their application, including, but not limited to, an in-person interview.
TECHNICAL STANDARDS:
The Athletic Training Program at Merrimack College is a rigorous and intense program that places specific requirements and demands on the students enrolled in the program. An objective of this program is to prepare students to enter a variety of employment settings in athletic training and to render care to a wide spectrum of individuals engaged in physical activity. The technical standards set forth by the Athletic Training Program, establish the essential qualities considered necessary for students admitted to this program to achieve the knowledge, skills and competencies of an entry-level athletic trainer, as well as meet the expectations of the program’s accrediting agency (Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). The following abilities and expectations must be met by all students admitted to the Athletic Training Program. In the event a student is unable to fulfill these technical standards, with or without reasonable accommodation, the student will not be admitted into the program.
Compliance with the program’s technical standards does not guarantee a student’s eligibility for BOC certification exam.
Candidates for selection to the Athletic Training Program must demonstrate the following technical standards and guidelines with or without reasonable accommodations:
1. The ability to learn through observation. Observation requires the functional use of vision, hearing and somatic senses. The student must be able to participate in lectures, as well as laboratory and practicum demonstrations. The student should be able to:
• Observe clinical signs through visual and tactile assessment (swelling, deformity), palpate a patient accurately to determine variations from the norm (through palpation of anatomical structures)
• Observe output readings to determine a patient’s condition and status of treatment (blood pressure, range of motion, loss of function)
• Ability to listen to a patient describe their medical history and symptoms
2. The student must possess the ability to communicate effectively and sensitively.
• With patients: to obtain information regarding the patients’ health complaints and disposition.
• With colleagues and other members of the health care community: to convey essential information for safe and effective care.
• Students must be able to read, communicate in writing and demonstrate computer literacy assignments. The student must also be able to understand and speak the English language at a level consistent with competent professional practice.
3. The student must have sufficient neuromuscular control, sensory function and coordination to perform physical examinations using accepted methods. Accurately and safely utilize equipment and materials during the assessment and treatment of patients.
4. The student must possess the intellectual abilities to effectively solve problems and critically think. They must be able to measure, calculate, reason, analyze, integrate and synthesize information in a timely manner. (The student must be able to synthesize knowledge and integrate the relevant aspects of a patient’s history and examination findings to develop an effective treatment plan).
5. Students must possess the psychological ability required for the full use of their intellectual abilities, for the exercise of good judgment, for the prompt completion of all responsibilities inherent to assessment and care of patients, and for the development of mature, sensitive and effective relationships with patients. Students should be able to tolerate physically and mentally taxing workloads and function effectively under stress. They must be able to adapt to a changing environment, and function in the face of uncertainties inherent in the setting of athletic training. Students must demonstrate ethical behavior, both in the classroom and during their clinical experience.
Reasonable accommodations:
A student must demonstrate the above skills and abilities, but may do so with or without reasonable accommodation. The Athletic Training Program Director in combination with the Director of Accessibility Services will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified students to enable them to meet these technical guidelines. Whether or not an accommodation is reasonable will be determined on an individual basis.
Students seeking academic accommodations must provide medical documentation of their disability and comply with the procedures of the Merrimack College Office of Accessibility Services. Once a student’s eligibility is established the Director of Accessibility Services will forward a set of recommended accommodations to each of the student’s professors who reviews these recommendations to ensure that the accommodations requested are reasonable, taking into account whether the accommodation would jeopardize clinician/patient safety, or the educational process of the student or the institution, including all coursework, clinical experiences and internships deemed essential to graduation.
A student who is admitted to the major but unable to fulfill these technical standards, with or without reasonable accommodation, will not be able to complete the major.