Volume 9: Issue 1

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King, Jr.¹

Athletic training as a profession has undergone significant change over the past decades. In an effort to better prepare athletic training professionals for the challenges of the future, we have expanded our employment venues, refined our accreditation processes, and even changed our professional organizational logo. With each change in the profession, we have remained focused on one central element—the future.

Howard Gardner, a world-renowned Harvard professor, contends that the future belongs

Context

Athletic training education programs must provide the student with opportunities to learn the roles and responsibilities of the athletic trainer.

Objective

Investigate factors that help prepare the athletic training student (ATS) to successfully enter the workplace upon graduation from her undergraduate program.

Design

Exploratory qualitative study using phone interviews.

Setting

Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education–accredited programs.

Patients or Other Participants

Twenty-six interviews were conducted with ATSs (7 men, 19 women) who were pursuing an athletic training position postgraduation.

Data Collection and Analysis

Interview data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed utilizing the specific procedures of grounded theory. Trustworthiness of the data was established by using 2 specific strategies, including (1) member checks and (2) multiple analyst triangulation.

Results

Two themes emerged from the data explaining the ATS level of preparedness, as they got ready to assume a position in the athletic training workforce: diversified clinical experience along with strong mentorship.

Conclusions

Athletic training educators need to promote the mentorship relationship between the ATS and clinical instructor as it helps the ATSs gain self-confidence in their clinical abilities. Moreover, by providing variety in clinical experiences the ATS can gain a holistic impression of the field, thus gaining an appreciation for the varying roles within each clinical setting while developing clinical competence and confidence.

Context

The field of athletic training needs young engaged professionals for continued progress in allied health care. Academic and clinical requirements during the entry-level education could potentially impact the decisions and directions these students choose to pursue as young professionals.

Objective

To determine the difference in professional involvement of athletic trainers (ATs) based upon their participation in professional activities while completing their entry-level athletic training program (ATP).

Design

Online surveys to determine ATP requirements of students and to determine the involvement of ATs in 5 professional activities after their certification by the Board of Certification. Perception questions were also included.

Patients or Other Participants

Included 120 ATs from across the United States. All AT participants graduated within the 2004–2005 academic year and obtained certification in 2005.

Data Collection and Analysis

Online surveys were administered through PsychData. The McNemar test was used to determine changes in participation levels of participants as students and as professionals. Frequency of yes/no responses was used to present perceptions, and participants' comments were included in the discussion section.

Results

Student participation in community service, mentoring other students, and submitting presentation proposals did influence participation in these activities as a professional. However, professional involvement was not influenced by student membership in organizations, research, or mentoring by a health care professional.

Conclusions

Participation in some professional activities as students should be encouraged or required in order to promote continued participation in these activities when the students become athletic training professionals.

Context

It is the responsibility of athletic training educators, through curriculum and clinical experiences, to engage students towards adopting evidence-based practice (EBP) into their practice. The initial task of implementing EBP into a curriculum or course can seem like a large task for educators and students. As a way to start scaffolding EBP concepts across the curriculum, a modified critical appraisal assignment was developed to teach therapeutic modality concepts.

Objective

The purpose of this action research project was to demonstrate how a modified critical appraisal assignment can be used to introduce the process and aspects of critical appraisal and begin scaffolding the development of critical appraisal skills over time. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the students' ability to (1) successfully locate relevant research needed to answer clinical questions and (2) successfully appraise the literature according to basic EBP strategy. From a program perspective, the modified critical appraisal assignment was a starting point from which to include EBP principles into didactic coursework.

Design

Seventeen athletic training students completed 3 modified critical appraisal assignments pertaining to the use of therapeutic modalities. Each paper included 5 sections: (1) clinical question, (2) key clinical findings, (3) clinical applicability based on information from the appraisal and significance of results, (4) article comparison table, and (5) implications for clinical practice, patient education, and future research. The instructor evaluated the assignments blind.

Conclusions

Students were generally able to complete the critical appraisal assignment; however, students had difficulty locating research that answered the clinical question. Students struggled to relate the key clinical findings of the research articles and implications for clinical practice to the given clinical question. Findings from this study have informed faculty teaching, including introducing EBP skills earlier in the curriculum and inserting assignments that stress various aspects of the critical appraisal process.

Pain reduction following massage after induced fatigue is not mediated by changes in muscle stiffness or intramuscular fluid content: a randomized controlled trial with mediation analysis

Guilherme S. NunesPT, PhD,

Brenda Dutra GuterresPT,

Ane Priscila DielPT,

Anna Carolina O. Machado,

Nathália Kolling da RosaPT,

Victória dos Santos TurchettoPT, and

Fábio Juner LanferdiniPE, PhD