Context: Successful athletic training programs should help students develop a desire to work within the athletic training profession while providing adequate preparation for them to enter the workforce. Understanding athletic training students' perceptions of the profession as they leave programs and the factors that influence these…

Context: Research has not explored how peer-assisted learning (PAL) impacts graduates once they are practicing as athletic trainers. Peer-assisted learning has been used in a variety of health education settings but there is a lack of data on its effects on the performance of graduates. Objective: To investigate professional graduates'…

Objective: To describe the development of a self-efficacy instrument and to explore the changes by gender in student self-efficacy ratings over 1 year. Design and Setting: An exploratory study utilizing an instrument that measures self-efficacy in undergraduate students in a university setting. Patients or Other Participants: Thirty students (13…

Context: Validity arguments can be used to provide evidence that instructors are drawing accurate conclusions from the results of students' clinical performance assessments (PAs). Little research has been conducted in athletic training education to determine if the evidence supports the use of current PAs. Measurement theories designed to…

Context: Clinical education is an integral part of athletic training programs. This is where students should develop their professional identities and become socialized into the profession. Understanding the student and preceptor perspectives of the impact that clinical experiences have on students can provide valuable insight into this aspect of…

Context: Plastination techniques have emerged as effective methods for preserving human tissue and enabling human specimens to be utilized in a fashion similar to anatomical models with much greater accuracy. Opportunities to observe and experience human specimens in classroom settings should be beneficial to undergraduate and graduate students in…

Context: Clinical experiences are an integral part of athletic training education and are where students gain the hands-on, practical knowledge and skills necessary to provide quality patient care in the field. However, some clinical education experiences may not allow athletic training students to become clinically integrated. Objective: To…

Context: Highly developed critical thinking and the ability to discriminate among many possible therapeutic interventions is a core behavior for the practicing athletic trainer. However, while athletic training students receive a great deal of clinically applicable information, many are not explicitly trained in efficient methods for channeling…

Athletic training faculty seeking tenure and promotion, or simply undergoing an annual merit review, may need an understanding of the impact of their scholarly work. To that end, citation counts are frequently used as a measure of impact that a journal article has had in a given discipline. As compared to the simple quantity of publications, the…

Academic freedom is defined as the "freedom of the individual scholar to pursue truth wherever it leads, without fear of punishment or of termination of employment for having offended some political, methodological, religious, or social orthodoxy." Currently there is paucity of literature addressing the issue of academic freedom specific to…

Athletic training educators (ATEs) have a responsibility to remain aware of the current student population, particularly how they learn and give meaning to what they have learned. Just as clinical athletic trainers (ATs) must adapt to ever changing work schedules and demands, so too must athletic training educators. In addition to adapting to…

Context: Graduating athletic training students must consider both physical and mental aspects of injury to fully rehabilitate the injured athlete; however, programs may not be preparing students to apply psychosocial strategies that can improve the recovery process. Objective: To examine Psychosocial Intervention and Referral (PIR) content area…

Context: While sports medicine study abroad opportunities have recently increased, the literature regarding their development is non-existent in athletic training education literature and very limited in general education literature. Objective: The purpose of this manuscript is to draw upon my experience to describe the essential design elements…

Context: Immediate feedback has been shown to improve student learning more efficiently than delayed feedback in lower-level general education courses. No research exists examining the effects of immediate feedback on learning in higher-level athletic training coursework. Objective: To determine if using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique…

Context: While burnout has received a great deal of attention within the athletic training profession, there is little data on how it affects athletic training students (ATSs). Objective: To determine what factors influence burnout among ATSs enrolled in accredited athletic training education programs. Design and Setting: Basic, interpretive…