Expanding Opportunities for Athletic Trainers
By Dylan Orrell
The 2026 NATA Compensation and Workforce Study shows a profession that is increasingly diverse in where athletic trainers work and where they see opportunities for their careers to grow.
24% of respondents said they intend to work in a different setting within the next five years. Among those considering a change, clinics, hospitals, professional sports, business/sales/marketing and independent contracting all attracted greater interest as future settings than their current share of the workforce.
Creating more pathways for athletic trainers means helping members recognize and pursue those opportunities. It also requires increasing understanding of the profession, demonstrating where AT expertise can meet emerging needs and addressing barriers that can limit where and how athletic trainers practice.
Increase Understanding, Expand Opportunity
For athletic trainers to reach new populations and workplaces, employers and the public first need to understand who ATs are and what they can do.
Half of respondents identified a lack of public understanding of the role of athletic trainers as a major challenge facing the profession over the next three to five years. The concern is particularly pronounced in some settings where the profession has opportunities to expand. More than 60% of respondents in industrial/occupational/corporate and health/fitness/sports performance settings identified public understanding as a major challenge.
NATA addresses that challenge through public awareness, media outreach and employer education.
At Your Own Risk, NATA's public awareness campaign, provides resources to educate employers, workers, legislators, school administrators, parents and others about who athletic trainers are, where they work and the value they bring to the health care team.
National Athletic Training Month provides another opportunity each March to bring that message to a broader audience while giving members tools to advocate for the profession in their own communities. During NATM 2025, NATA published 433 social media posts and stories that generated more than 1.3 million impressions and nearly 82,000 engagements, with a 6.1% engagement rate. Members were encouraged to add their own photos, videos and stories using #NATM2025, while a student video contest highlighted future athletic trainers sharing what it means to be “Champions in Health Care.”
The campaign extended beyond social media. NATM content appeared in eight NATA newsletters throughout March, and a member toolkit included press release templates, sample proclamations and public service announcements to support local outreach. National media exposure included a “Today” show segment focused on sports health and safety, while targeted PR outreach around NATM and March Madness created additional opportunities to connect athletic trainers with timely health and safety conversations.
Media outreach continues that education throughout the year by connecting athletic training expertise with health and safety issues in the news. Recent coverage has highlighted ATs in stories about heat safety, emergency preparedness and student athlete health. An August NPR Morning Edition story on schools adapting sports for extreme heat, for example, highlighted the role of athletic trainers in preventing and responding to heat illness and cited NATA data on access to full-time ATs in public secondary schools.
Through the NATA Employer Program, NATA also works directly with organizations that employ athletic trainers, providing education, research and resources to strengthen understanding of the profession and support their AT employees.
Explore New Career Pathways
The Workforce Study findings provide a window into where ATs are looking for their next opportunities. Clinics account for 14% of current work settings but 22% of intended settings among respondents planning a change. Hospitals increase from 8% of current settings to 15% of intended settings, while professional sports increased from 3% to 9%. Interest also increases in industrial/occupational/corporate settings, business/sales/marketing, health/fitness/sports performance and independent contracting.
Those choices reflect more than a desire for a different workplace. Among respondents who have changed or intend to change settings, 32% said they were looking for a setting better aligned with their skills or interests. Higher pay, improved work-life balance and more stable or consistent hours were also among the leading reasons for making a change.
The NATA Council on Practice Advancement supports athletic trainers across clinical and emerging practice settings, including occupational health, performing arts, physician practice, public safety, rehabilitation, private practice and the armed forces.
Members interested in these pathways can also access NATA's Emerging Settings Resources, which include practical tools such as employer resources, outreach agreements and proposal development materials. Pathways for Career Advancement in Athletic Training provides additional guidance for ATs considering advancement within and beyond traditional workplace settings, while the NATA Career Center connects all athletic trainers, regardless of membership, with job opportunities across the profession.
Together, these resources help members explore where their expertise can take them while supporting continued expansion of athletic training into workplaces and patient populations that can benefit from AT services.
Remove Barriers To Practice
Creating opportunities is only part of the equation. Athletic trainers also need to be able to pursue them.
NATA's government affairs and practice advancement efforts address legislative and regulatory issues that can affect where and how athletic trainers work. That includes efforts to ensure laws and regulations appropriately reflect ATs' education and skill set and allow them to practice to the fullest extent of that preparation.
The Athletic Trainer Compact is one example. The compact is designed to provide eligible athletic trainers licensed in participating states with a more efficient pathway to practice in other participating states, reducing barriers to professional mobility while maintaining regulatory standards.
Practice advancement efforts also provide resources related to reimbursement, revenue generation, demonstrating value and developing sustainable models for athletic training services. These tools can help members establish and strengthen opportunities in a variety of settings.
Creating More Pathways
The Workforce Study findings show that athletic trainers are already exploring a wide range of possibilities for their careers. Creating more opportunities means increasing public and employer understanding, demonstrating where AT expertise can meet emerging needs, helping members explore different career pathways and addressing barriers to practice and mobility.
Public awareness campaigns, media outreach, employer education, practice advancement, career resources and advocacy each address a different part of that work.
By continuing to track where ATs work, where they see opportunities and what stands in their way, NATA can use the Workforce Study to inform efforts that create more pathways for athletic trainers to apply their expertise, serve new populations and build careers that align with their goals.
