Volume 8: Issue 3

Context

Preceptors play a vital role in athletic training education as they mentor and socialize athletic training students into their professional role. Exploring the benefits to serving as a preceptor is important to secure appropriate professional role models for students.

Objective

To determine the benefits of serving as an athletic training preceptor.

Design

Qualitative study.

Setting

Undergraduate athletic training programs (ATPs).

Patients or Other Participants

Twenty-four preceptors (average age = 32 ± 7 years, 11 male, 13 female, average clinical experience = 9 ± 6 years, average preceptor experience = 5 ± 3 years) volunteered to participate in our study. Participants represented 7 undergraduate Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education–accredited ATPs from the east coast.

Data Collection and Analysis

We asked participants to journal responses to open-ended questions through a QuestionPro online survey. We analyzed data using a general inductive approach. We secured credibility by using consistency and stakeholder checks and by having a peer review our work.

Results

Three main themes emerged from the data. Preceptors enjoy the personal relationships they build with students. The challenging atmosphere of supervising students while they gain knowledge to improve their skills also came through as a major benefit to serving as a preceptor. Finally, our participants enjoy teaching and mentoring the future members of the athletic training profession.

Conclusions

Our participants listed the relationships they build with students as rewarding, potentially leading to an improved professional commitment. Reciprocal learning between the preceptors and the students allows for a stimulating environment and has the potential to improve patient care. The enjoyment of teaching and mentoring students may aid in providing a dynamic atmosphere for students to learn.

Context

Colleges and universities are implementing new academic and social programs to retain students. One possible program is a residential living community (RLC) devoted to a content area.

Objective

To understand the perceptions of athletic training students involved in an RLC.

Design

Qualitative study.

Setting

Athletic training program.

Patients or Other Participants

Ten athletic training students (8 female, 2 male; average age = 19.50 ± 0.97 years) who participated in an RLC during their first year in college volunteered to participate.

Data Collection and Analysis

We used QuestionPro to complete in-depth interviews by having the participants journal their responses to open-ended questions. We used grounded theory to uncover the dominant themes and negotiated over the coding scheme, completed member checks, and performed a peer review to establish trustworthiness.

Results

The overall theme of our data pertained to the supportive nature of the RLC allowing for early socialization. Specifically, we uncovered 3 subthemes. The participants found study opportunities common because they lived in close proximity to peers in the same classes. Our participants believed the RLC provided a supportive environment by fostering a support network with classmates navigating similar challenges. Students also enjoyed early socialization by having a resident assistant who was an upper-level athletic training student. The final theme emerged from the unintended consequences of the RLC. Finding a quiet area in which to study became difficult and students often had trouble making personal connections outside of athletic training.

Conclusions

The RLC promoted first-year student success by fostering relationships and providing early socialization to the demands of the athletic training program. Some negative aspects did occur; however, these can be remedied by having quiet study spaces available and providing students with sufficient time outside of athletic training to pursue extracurricular endeavors.

Context

As the first medical professionals on scene when emergency situations arise in sport, athletic trainers (ATs) need to be proficient in recognizing and managing these conditions. Recent evidence regarding exertional heatstroke indicates a lack of educational training as a factor preventing implementation of best practices, yet other causes of sudden death exist, and little is known about the educational training provided to the AT.

Objective

To gain insight into the entry-level AT and athletic training students' (ATSs') perceptions of education received in the area of emergency care techniques.

Design

Mixed methods study.

Setting

Athletic training programs (ATPs) and practice settings.

Patients or Other Participants

Thirteen first-year ATs (n = 7) or recent ATS graduates before employment (n = 6).

Data Collection and Analysis

One-on-one phone interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed inductively using a grounded theory approach and open coding. Close-ended questions were analyzed by calculating frequencies, means, and standard deviations. Multiple analyst triangulation and peer review were used to establish data credibility.

Results

One main theme emerged: participants revealed they perceived their education to be compartmentalized. Compartmentalization comprised 3 subthemes: cognitive knowledge, skill implementation, and clinical integration. Participants received the cognitive knowledge through traditional teaching methods but had minimal hands-on laboratory practice in the area of basic emergent and immediate care skills. Instructors placed greater focus on situations or cases that educators had encountered versus on the broader scope of conditions. Contrived, discussion-based instructional methods rather than real-life integration were used to evaluate the ATSs' ability to apply the knowledge and skills.

Conclusions

Beyond providing ATSs with the necessary didactic knowledge and hands-on practice through structured laboratory sessions, educators must also provide the opportunity for clinical application of knowledge and skills. Athletic training students must be provided opportunities to apply emergent care skills in order to demonstrate competency and critical thinking.

INTRODUCTION

The National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) Executive Committee for Education has emphasized the need for proper recognition and management of orthopaedic and general medical conditions through their support of numerous learning objectives and the clinical integrated proficiencies.¹ These learning objectives and integrated clinical proficiencies are designed to prepare athletic training students to become competent professionals. In fact, the educational competencies and integrated proficiencies related to orthopaedic clinical assessment and diagnosis are just one of the vital links in becoming either a successful or an unsuccessful athletic trainer. However, this success is not accomplished overnight; rather, it is

Introduction: Improved communication and teamwork among healthcare professionals is advocated as a strategy to solve numerous challenges within the health care system, such as allocation of limited resources, poor clinical outcomes, and low job satisfaction. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC), which occurs when multiple health care providers from different professional backgrounds provide comprehensive health care by working with patients, their families, and communities to deliver the highest quality care possible, may offer a partial solution to the aforementioned challenges. We will provide brief synopses of current research on IPC and discuss possible applications to athletic training education, research, and practice.

Messersmith

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