Athletic Trainer Services in Public and Private Secondary Schools.

CONTEXT:  The presence of athletic trainers (ATs) in secondary schools to provide medical care is crucial, especially with the rise in sports participation and resulting high volume of injuries. Previous authors have investigated the level of AT services offered, but the differences in medical care offered between the public and private sectors have not been explored.

OBJECTIVE:  To compare the level of AT services in public and private secondary schools.

DESIGN:  Concurrent mixed-methods study.

SETTING:  Public and private secondary schools in the United States.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:  A total of 10 553 secondary schools responded to the survey (8509 public, 2044 private).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):  School administrators responded to the survey via telephone or e-mail. Descriptive statistics depict national data. Open-ended questions were evaluated through content analysis.

RESULTS:  A greater percentage of public secondary schools than private secondary schools hired ATs. Public secondary schools provided a higher percentage of full-time, part-time, and clinic AT services than private secondary schools. Only per diem AT services were more frequent in the private sector. Regardless of the extent of services, reasons for not employing an AT were similar between sectors. Common barriers were budget, school size, and lack of awareness of the role of an AT. Unique to the public sector, remote location was identified as a challenge faced by some administrators.

CONCLUSIONS:  Both public and private secondary schools lacked ATs, but higher percentages of total AT services and full-time services were available in the public sector. Despite differences in AT services, both settings provided a similar number of student-athletes with access to medical care. Barriers to hiring ATs were comparable between public and private secondary schools; however, remote location was a unique challenge for the public sector.