Context: Certified athletic trainers (ATs) working at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level experience challenges balancing their professional and personal lives. However, an understanding of the strategies ATs use to promote a balance between their professional and personal lives is lacking.Objective: To identify the strategies ATs employed in the Division I setting use to establish a balance between their professional and personal lives.Design: Qualitative investigation using inductive content analysis.Setting: Athletic trainers employed at Division I schools from 5 National Athletic Trainers' Association districts.Patients or Other Participants: A total of 28 (15 women, 13 men) ATs aged 35 6 9 years volunteered for the study.Data Collection and Analysis: Asynchronous electronic interviews with follow-up phone interviews. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Peer review, member checking, and datasource triangulation were conducted to establish trustworthiness.Results: Three higher-order themes emerged from the analysis. The initial theme, antecedents of work-family conflict, focused on the demands of the profession, flexibility of work schedules, and staffing patterns as contributing to work-life conflict for this group of ATs. The other 2 emergent higher-order themes, professional factors and personal factors, describe the components of a balanced lifestyle. The second-order theme of constructing the professional factors included both organizational policies and individual strategies, whereas the secondorder theme of personal factors was separation of work and life and a supportive personal network.Conclusions: Long work hours, lack of control over work schedules, and unbalanced athlete-to-AT ratios can facilitate conflicts. However, as demonstrated by our results, several organizational and personal strategies can be helpful in creating a balanced lifestyle.Key Words: work-family conflict, organizational support, professional satisfaction Key Points N Although professional demands, inflexible work schedules, and inadequate staffing patterns can cause conflicts, work-life balance is achievable for athletic trainers at the Division I level.N To promote work-life balance, administrators should encourage teamwork, and athletic trainers can set boundaries and priorities.N A strong support system, both at work and at home, is the critical link that allows athletic trainers to balance their professional and personal lives.

Context: Career opportunities for athletic training students (ATSs) have increased substantially over the past few years. However, ATSs commonly appear to be opting for a more diversified professional experience after graduation. With the diversity in available options, an understanding of career decision is imperative.Objective: To use the theoretical framework of socialization to investigate the influential factors behind the postgraduation decisions of senior ATSs.Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Web-based management system and telephone interviews.Patients or Other Participants: Twenty-two ATSs (16 females, 6 males; age ¼ 22 6 2 years) who graduated in May 2010 from 13 different programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education.Data Collection and Analysis: All interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the data were analyzed inductively. Data analysis required independent coding by 2 athletic trainers for specific themes. Credibility of the results was confirmed via peer review, methodologic triangulation, and multiple analyst triangulation.Results: Two higher-order themes emerged from the data analysis: persistence in athletic training (AT) and decision to leave AT. Faculty and clinical instructor support, marketability, and professional growth were supporting themes describing persistence in AT. Shift of interest away from AT, lack of respect for the AT profession, compensation, time commitment, and AT as a stepping stone were themes sustaining the reasons that ATSs leave AT. The aforementioned reasons to leave often were discussed collectively, generating a collective undesirable outlook on the AT profession.Conclusions: Our results highlight the importance of faculty support, professional growth, and early socialization into AT. Socialization of pre-AT students could alter retention rates by providing in-depth information about the profession before students commit in their undergraduate education and by helping reduce attrition before entrance into the workforce.

Context: Many newly credentialed athletic trainers gain initial employment as graduate assistants (GAs) in the collegiate setting, yet their socialization into their role is unknown. Exploring the socialization process of GAs in the collegiate setting could provide insight into how that process occurs.Objective: To explore the professional socialization of GAs in the collegiate setting to determine how GAs are socialized and developed as athletic trainers.Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Individual phone interviews.Patients or Other Participants: Athletic trainers (N ¼ 21) who had supervised GAs in the collegiate setting for a minimum of 8 years (16 men [76%], 5 women [24%]; years of supervision experience ¼ 14.6 6 6.6).Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected via phone interviews, which were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by a 4-person consensus team with a consensual qualitative-research design. The team independently coded the data and compared ideas until a consensus was reached, and a codebook was created. Trustworthiness was established through member checks and multianalyst triangulation.Results: Four themes emerged: (1) role orientation, (2) professional development and support, (3) role expectations, and (4) success. Role orientation occurred both formally (eg, review of policies and procedures) and informally (eg, immediate role immersion). Professional development and support consisted of the supervisor mentoring and intervening when appropriate. Role expectations included decision-making ability, independent practice, and professionalism; however, supervisors often expected GAs to function as experienced, full-time staff. Success of the GAs depended on their adaptability and on the proper selection of GAs by supervisors.Conclusions: Supervisors socialize GAs into the collegiate setting by providing orientation, professional development, mentoring, and intervention when necessary. Supervisors are encouraged to use these socialization tactics to enhance the professional development of GAs in the collegiate setting.Key Words: professional development, orientation, mentoring, qualitative research Key PointsSupervisors believed graduate assistantships were important in the professional growth of new athletic trainers to help transition them into clinical practice. Several processes were used to socialize graduate assistants into their roles in the collegiate setting, including orientations and providing mentorship and support. Supervisors were responsible for professionally developing graduate assistants, but several supervisors had unrealistic expectations for graduate assistants to practice as full-time staff and experienced athletic trainers.

Context The graduate assistant athletic trainer (AT) position often serves as one's first experience working independently as an AT and is also an important aspect of the professional socialization process. The socialization experiences of graduate assistant ATs have yet to be fully explored. Objective To understand the socialization process for graduate assistant ATs during their graduate experience. Design Qualitative study. Setting We conducted phone interviews with all participants. Patients or Other Participants A total of 25 graduate assistant ATs (20 women, 5 men) studying in 1 of 3 academic tracks: (1) accredited postprofessional athletic training program (n = 8), (2) postprofessional athletic training program (n = 11), or (3) a nonathletic training degree program (n = 6). The average age was 25 ± 5 years, and the median age was 24 years. Participants were certified by the Board of Certification for an average of 2 ± 0.4 years. Data Collection and Analysis We analyzed the data using a general inductive approach. Peer review, field notes, and intercoder reliability established trustworthiness. Data saturation guided participant recruitment. Results The ability to gain clinical independence as a practitioner was an important socialization process. Having the chance to develop a relationship with a mentor, who provided support, guidance, and more of a hierarchical relationship, was an important socializing agent for the graduate assistant AT. Participants used the orientation session as a means to understand the expectations and role of the graduate-assistant position. Academic coursework was a way to achieve better inductance into the role via the opportunity to apply classroom skills during their clinical practice. Conclusions Socializing the graduate assistant blends formal and informal processes. Transition to practice is a critical aspect of the profession; thus, supporting autonomous practice with directed mentoring can promote professional maturity.