User:ITasteLikePaint/Athletic trainers and therapists on wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you are a member of a professional athletic training, athletic therapy or sports medicine organization, there is a good chance that you are, by association, a member of the World Federation of Athletic Trainers and Therapists (WFATT). One of the goals of the WFATT, as listed on its website is to, “3. Provide information on professions and organizations that deliver health care to active populations.”

You have a professional responsibility to educate the public about your profession. Between January 2008 and December 2010, the English Wikipedia article for Athletic training averaged just about 3000 views a month. If a ‘third’ of those are people who went to that article to learn something about athletic training/therapy, that is almost 1000 people a month that have been educated about our profession. Wikipedia cannot be ignored as a medium for educating the public.

I think that it’s safe to say that any athletic trainers/therapists on Wikipedia would be watching the article Athletic training, and currently there are less than 30 users watching that page and the few of us that are, are not very active. It was suggested for three months that the article Athletic trainer be merged with Personal trainer, information from Athletic trainer had been put into Personal trainer in preparation for the merger before two people spoke up and prevented it. That proposal shouldn’t have ever left the discussion stages, but nobody from the athletic training/therapy community spoke up. There are many decisions that need to be made about the presence that athletic training/therapy has on Wikipedia, but three people can’t make those decisions, we need a collective voice. There isn’t enough activity from the athletic training/therapy community to warrant its own Wikiproject, but organization is necessary.

Please add yourself to this table and watch this page if you have an interest in athletic training and want to be more involved in its presence on Wikipedia.

User Perspective
ITasteLikePaint • Talk • Contribs Athletic training student
GTEP Athletic training faculty
MRFRobinson Athletic Therapist