Objective: To present athletic trainers with recommendations for safe weight loss and weight maintenance practices for athletes and active clients and to provide athletes, clients, coaches, and parents with safe guidelines that will allow athletes and clients to achieve and maintain weight and body composition goals.Background: Unsafe weight management practices can compromise athletic performance and negatively affect health. Athletes and clients often attempt to lose weight by not eating, limiting caloric or specific nutrients from the diet, engaging in pathogenic weight control behaviors, and restricting fluids. These people often respond to pressures of the sport or activity, coaches, peers, or parents by adopting negative body images and unsafe practices to maintain an ideal body composition for the activity. We provide athletic trainers with recommendations for safe weight loss and weight maintenance in sport and exercise. Although safe weight gain is also a concern for athletic trainers and their athletes and clients, that topic is outside the scope of this position statement.Recommendations: Athletic trainers are often the source of nutrition information for athletes and clients; therefore, they must have knowledge of proper nutrition, weight management W eight classifications in sport (eg, youth football, wrestling, rowing, boxing) were designed to ensure healthy, safe, and equitable participation l ; however, not all sports or activities in which weight might playa role in performance use a weight classification system. In activities such as dance, distance running, gymnastics, and cycling, weight and body composition are believed to influence physical performance and the aesthetics of performance. Yet the governing organizations of these activities have no mandated weight control practices. In 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics 2 published a general weight control practice guide for children and adolescents involved in all sports.In addition to the potential performance benefits of lean body mass and lower levels of body fat, long-term health benefits include decreased cardiovascular risk factors, reduced triglyceride concentration, possible increases in cardioprotective practices, and methods to change body composition. Body composition assessments should be done in the most scientifically appropriate manner possible. Reasonable and individualized weight and body composition goals should be identified by appropriately trained health care personnel (eg, athletic trainers, registered dietitians, physicians). In keeping with the American Dietetics Association (ADA) preferred nomenclature, this document uses the terms registered dietitian or dietician when referring to a food and nutrition expert who has met the academic and professional requirements specified by the ADA's Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education. In some cases, a registered nutritionist may have equivalent credentials and be the commonly used term. All weight management and exercise protocols used to achieve these goals...
Context Paradoxes exist in athletic training education. Practicing athletic trainers must be able to demonstrate competency in the knowledge, skills, and abilities that span the scope of practice. To supervise students preparing to be athletic trainers, preceptors must be credentialed to practice and meet continuing education requirements across the scope of practice. However, to teach students in the classroom/lab settings, athletic training faculty must be “qualified through professional preparation and experienced in their respective academic areas as determined by the institution,” “be recognized by the institution as having instructional responsibilities,” and must “incorporate the most current athletic training knowledge, skills, and abilities as they pertain to their respective teaching areas.” These requirements then help to prompt the question of how to transition athletic training educators from competent professionals who are clinical generalist to experts in both the content and clinical skills they are required to teach. Objective To describe the differences between expert and novice teachers, as well as the impact of content expertise on athletic training student learning. Suggestions for improving content expertise and teaching expertise also will be discussed. Background Distinct differences exist in not only the methods used but also the learning outcomes of novice versus expert faculty. Faculty who have both content and clinical expertise in the areas that they teach are able to maximize student learning by making connections within and across content areas, as well as understand and adapt to their learners. Lacking this foundational background, novice teachers spend much of their limited planning time learning required content or trying to create appropriate ways to teach that content. While students are able to recognize differences between expert and novice teachers and learn despite the effectiveness of the teacher, learning is better and at greater depths when the teachers are more expert.
Context: While evidence-based practice (EBP) concepts are being taught in health profession education programs, models of instruction and effectiveness of these models are not evident in athletic training. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Evidence-Based Teaching Model (EBTM) in increasing student knowledge, attitudes, and use of evidence-based concepts. Design: Within subjects design with pre- and post-test evaluations of students' knowledge, attitudes, and intended use using the researcher-developed Evidence-Based Concepts: Knowledge, Attitudes and Use (EBCKAU) survey. Setting: CAATE-accredited undergraduate programs. Participants: Eighty-two students from a stratified purposeful sample of 9 institutions were enrolled in the study, 78 students (95%) completed the knowledge portion of the survey, while 68 students (83%) fully completed the knowledge, attitudes, and use portions of the survey. Data Collection and Analysis: The EBCKAU survey was used to assess student factors relating to EBP through multiple choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions. Results: Students significantly increased their knowledge, confidence in knowledge, familiarity with, and confidence in use of EBP skills following the EBTM. Prior to the EBTM, students earned a mean knowledge score of 50%. This improved to 66% post-EBTM. Students' interest and perceived importance scores did not increase. Barriers to student use of EBP included time, available resources, ACI open-mindedness, and experience. Conclusions: The EBTM was effective in improving student factors related to knowledge and use of EBP concepts. To our knowledge, this is the first published teaching model that assessed student outcomes related to EBP in athletic training education.
Context: Black women are dramatically underrepresented in the health care profession of athletic training. The research identifies impeding barriers such as racism, sexism, lack of support, and unpreparedness to the successful college completion of ethnically diverse students. However, there are black women who have successfully overcome those impeding barriers to become athletic trainers (ATs). Mentoring is one factor that has been identified as supportive to the retention of ethnically diverse college students. Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify impeding barriers and promoting factors affecting the retention and credentialing of black women ATs. Design: Qualitative. Setting: Education. Patients or Other Participants: Ten certified ATs who self-identify as black women and matriculated through athletic training programs over the last 4 decades. Main Outcome Measure(s): The perceived factors that impede or promote successful college retention and attainment of the Board of Certification credential of black women athletic training students. Results: There are barriers that impede and factors that promote the successful matriculation of black women athletic training students. Impeding barriers include a lack of support, sexism, and racism. Factors that promote include personal characteristics; experience with white culture; faculty, preceptor, and peer support; and the clinical education experience. Conclusions: Recognizing the factors that impede or promote the academic persistence of black women in athletic training programs allows athletic training educators and preceptors to improve the experiences of black women enrolled in those programs and potentially increase their participation and advancement in the athletic training profession.
Context Black women are dramatically underrepresented in the health care profession of athletic training. It may be theorized that one of the reasons more black female students are not entering into the profession of athletic training is that they do not have adequate mentors to successfully guide them. Objective The purpose of our qualitative study was to examine the perceived effects of mentoring on the retention and credentialing of black women athletic trainers. Design Qualitative. Setting Clinical settings. Patients or Other Participants Ten certified athletic trainers who self-designate as black women. Main Outcome Measure(s) We conducted one-on-one phone interviews and follow-up on personal case study interviews, which were transcribed verbatim. We performed constant comparative analysis of the data and established trustworthiness via member checks and peer review. Results (1) Mentoring promotes matriculation and successful college completion and credentialing of black women athletic training students, and (2) although shared race and gender are favorable mentor characteristics, accessibility and approachability are more essential traits of mentors. Conclusions These findings offer athletic training educators potential insight into ways to improve the athletic training educational success of black women enrolled in athletic training education programs that may lead to their increased participation/advancement in the athletic training profession.
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