What Does an Athletic Trainer Do?

In this section, we compare the average athletic trainer annual salary with that of an exercise physiologist. Typically, exercise physiologists earn a $2,371 higher salary than athletic trainers earn annually.

While their salaries may differ, one common ground between athletic trainers and exercise physiologists are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like patients, rehabilitation, and cpr.

As far as similarities go, this is where it ends because an athletic trainer responsibility requires skills such as "student athletes," "athletic injuries," "athletic events," and "osha." Whereas a exercise physiologist is skilled in "ekg," "acsm," "physical therapy," and "blood pressure." So if you're looking for what truly separates the two careers, you've found it.

Exercise physiologists tend to reach similar levels of education than athletic trainers. In fact, exercise physiologists are 3.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Next up, we have the exercise specialist profession to look over. This career brings along a lower average salary when compared to an athletic trainer annual salary. In fact, exercise specialists salary difference is $5,359 lower than the salary of athletic trainers per year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Athletic trainers and exercise specialists both include similar skills like "patients," "rehabilitation," and "cpr" on their resumes.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that athletic trainer responsibilities requires skills like "student athletes," "athletic injuries," "athletic events," and "osha." But an exercise specialist might use skills, such as, "customer service," "physical therapy," "blood pressure," and "acsm."

On the topic of education, exercise specialists earn similar levels of education than athletic trainers. In general, they're 4.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is sports medicine coordinator. On an average scale, these workers bring in lower salaries than athletic trainers. In fact, they make a $4,244 lower salary per year.

While looking through the resumes of several athletic trainers and sports medicine coordinators we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "patients," "rehabilitation," and "patient care," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, an athletic trainer is likely to be skilled in "cpr," "compassion," "athletic events," and "osha," while a typical sports medicine coordinator is skilled in "physical therapy," "ekg," "drug screens," and "clerkship."

Sports medicine coordinators are known to earn similar educational levels when compared to athletic trainers. Additionally, they're 2.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.6% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The fourth career we look at typically earns higher pay than athletic trainers. On average, physical therapists earn a difference of $26,042 higher per year.

While their salaries may vary, athletic trainers and physical therapists both use similar skills to perform their jobs. Resumes from both professions include skills like "patients," "rehabilitation," and "compassion. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an athletic trainer might have more use for skills like "cpr," "patient care," "student athletes," and "athletic injuries." Meanwhile, some physical therapists might include skills like "home health," "quality care," "physical therapy," and "treatment programs" on their resume.

Physical therapists reach similar levels of education when compared to athletic trainers. The difference is that they're 2.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree less, and 16.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.