Adopting a Public Health Lens: One Program's Story

Abstract

Context The clinical practice of athletic training involves the daily application of public health (PH) principles and practices. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in understanding and promoting the intersections of athletic training and PH. Objective The primary objective of this article is to share the path taken by the Oregon State University athletic training faculty to integrate PH perspectives into our work and provide examples of how this has affected our program, scholarly work, and service activities. Background Our college pursued and obtained accreditation from the Council for Education for Public Health. During the pursuit of accreditation, the college's leadership encouraged each academic program to integrate direct connections to PH. Description Our athletic training program embraced the administration's encouragement to adopt a PH lens and took definitive steps developing relationships and establishing collaborations with PH experts. Additionally, we started to establish approaches for infusing PH content and perspectives into our curriculum. Clinical Advantage Athletic training programs can position themselves and their students to forge partnerships and find resources, solutions, or skill sets that are currently underutilized in athletic training. Conclusions The adoption of a PH lens by the athletic training program at Oregon State University has benefitted students and faculty. We recommend all athletic training programs explore opportunities to integrate PH into activities inside and outside of the classroom.