Athletic Training Milestones

The Athletic Training (AT) Milestones are provided in a downloadable pdf document. The AT Milestones are designed for programs to use in ongoing review of individual (student, resident, fellow) performance. Milestones are knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other attributes for each of the six general competencies (e.g., patient-care and procedural skills, medical knowledge) and eight specialty competencies (e.g., Prevention and Wellness, Orthopedics) that describe the development of competence from an early learner up to and beyond that expected for unsupervised, advanced, and aspirational practice.

Programs should determine the frequency with which they use the AT Milestones to assess individual performance. For each general and specialty competency domain, programs should seek to provide a summative evaluation of an individuals learning trajectory over time.

The AT Milestones are structured in accordance with the belief that every athletic trainer entering general practice should demonstrate behaviors appropriate for unsupervised practice across all of the six general competencies and all of the eight specialty competencies. This structure ensures appropriate depth and breadth of knowledge across all of the competencies believed to be essential to the provision of quality health care. The AT Milestones have adopted the Institute of Medicine criteria for quality care, which involves the delivery of safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered care.

In contrast, athletic trainers pursuing specialty training should demonstrate advanced practice behaviors across all of the six general competencies, plus advanced practice behaviors only in their chosen area of specialty practice. It is not reasonable to expect that an athletic trainer exhibit advanced practice behaviors across all specialty competencies. Specialty care requires greater depth in each of the six general competencies and in the specific area of specialty practice and the AT Milestones are developed to provide guidance on how to progress from a generalist to a specialist.

Download the AT Milestones

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