Volume 13: Issue 1

Context:

Technology, social media, and access to health care continue to grow simultaneously. There is limited research on the knowledge of athletic training students regarding the ethical and legal practice of protected health information using technology and social media.

Objective:

To explore social media use of athletic training students and to determine their knowledge of patient privacy regulations within social media and technology.

Design and Setting:

Online survey instrument and knowledge assessment.

Patients or Other Participants:

A total of 652 athletic training students.

Intervention(s):

A knowledge assessment of 12 items based on the governance and use of patient privacy compliance in health care within the context of athletic training students' clinical experiences.

Main Outcome Measure(s):

An instrument of 26 questions, including 14 demographic and 12 knowledge items, was developed and content validated using a Delphi panel of experts in athletic training, health care information technology, and risk management lawyers. Descriptive statistics and independent t tests were calculated.

Results:

Athletic training students stated they had received previous education (n = 587 of 637, 92.2%) regarding Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, and had an average of 6.81 ± 2.75 active social media accounts. Only 24.2% (n = 154 of 636) of respondents stated their professional athletic training program had a social media policy that was strictly enforced. We identified a lack of knowledge of best practice by athletic training students, with an average knowledge assessment score of 4.92 ± 1.7 out of 13 (37.8%). Total knowledge scores were significantly different (P = .008) if the respondent had previous HIPAA education.

Conclusions:

The respondents scored poorly on the knowledge assessment despite previous education related to HIPAA regulations. Athletic training educators should seek out strategies to adapt professional or preprofessional curricula to incorporate health care informatics and ethics to adapt to the current culture of technology and social media.

Context:

Selection of one's occupation can be influenced and determined by several variables and is often studied through the lens of the socialization framework. Career choice has been examined in athletic training, with scholars focusing on identifying initial attractors to the education programs as well as the traditional employment settings. However, little is understood about why an athletic trainer (AT) pursues a role in higher education, specifically women ATs.

Objective:

Gain an understanding of the factors that influence and motivate women ATs to pursue a career as a faculty member.

Design:

Qualitative study.

Setting:

Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education professional programs.

Patients or Other Participants:

Sixteen women faculty members, average age 35 (±6.2, range 28–49; 2 did not report ages) with 11 average years of experience teaching in athletic training programs (1 did not report) and an average of 14 years of experience as certified ATs (±5.9, range 7–25).

Main Outcome Measure(s):

Participants completed one-on-one phone interviews, which were digitally recorded and transcribed. Analysis of the data followed the interpretative phenomenological approach. Credibility was established through pilot testing, peer review, and researcher triangulation.

Results:

Women ATs who have selected a role in higher education were attracted to their positions for three main reasons: (1) connection to the role of being a faculty member, employment goals aligned with the tenets of higher education, teaching, and research; (2) flexibility of schedule the women were able to maintain, accommodating schedule shaped to fit their needs; (3) selecting current jobs due primarily to logistics and location, allowing them to live in a desired location also acceptable to their spouse.

Conclusions:

Pursuing a faculty role in higher education for women ATs appears to be stimulated by personal and organizational factors, including an attraction to the roles of the faculty member and job responsibilities that can afford flexibility.

Context:

Work-life balance has become a growing concern in athletic training, but little is known about the experiences of faculty and finding it. Challenges in finding work-life balance have been reported among faculty in higher education, and those who are new to a role are often susceptible to increased stress and overload.

Objective:

Examine junior athletic training faculty members' experiences with work-life balance during their role inductance.

Design:

Qualitative inquiry.

Setting:

Higher education institutions.

Patients or Other Participants:

Sixteen junior faculty (7 male, 9 female) representing 7 National Athletic Trainers' Association districts participated. The average age of the junior faculty members was 32 ± 3.5 years. Twelve were in tenure track and 4 had non–tenure track positions.

Main Outcome Measure(s):

All participants completed phone interviews with one researcher following a semistructured interview protocol. Recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed following a phenomenological approach. We intentionally selected 3 primary measures of trustworthiness to establish the rigor of the study: (1) peer review, (2) multiple-analyst triangulation, and (3) researcher triangulation.

Results:

Three factors were identified as inhibitors of work-life balance for junior faculty: (1) role inductance, (2) research and teaching, and (3) upcoming deadlines. Two organizational strategies (flexibility and mentorship) and 2 individual strategies (time management and personal outlets) emerged as facilitators for work-life balance.

Conclusions:

Junior faculty in athletic training can experience conflict in balancing their roles as faculty members as well as their outside and own personal interests. The data support previous literature, and illustrates that organizational factors precipitate imbalance and a combination of organizational and individual strategies promote balance.

Athletic Training Student Clinical Education Practice Analysis

Harrison JJ, Eberman LE, Games KE, Tripp PM†, Valdez D‡, Winkelmann ZK: *Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN; †University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; ‡Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada

Context: Even before the onset of educational reform, clinical experience, whether through formal clinical education or internship experiences, shaped the academic preparation of future athletic training professionals. As education has evolved, emphasis has shifted to more formal classroom instruction enhanced with clinical experiences. Objective: To evaluate student perceptions about the importance of clinical education in their academic preparation and to evaluate

Reliability and Validity of the Functional Assessment of Neurocognition in Sport (FANS): A Paradigm Shift in Post-Concussion Return-to-Sport Decision-Making

Landon B. LempkePhD, ATC,

Benjamin L. BrettPhD, and

Douglas P. TerryPhD,ABPP