Barriers to Scholarship Integration in Professional Athletic Training Programs and Resources Needed to Overcome Barriers: A Report from the Association for Athletic Training Education Research Network

Abstract

Context Athletic training program administrators have identified that it is important to incorporate a scholarship component into professional education curricula. Objective Explore the barriers to implementing student scholarship in professional programs and identify resources necessary to overcome the barriers. Design Consensual qualitative research. Setting Individual teleconference interview. Patients or Other Participants A total of 17 program directors of professional programs was interviewed. Programs reported an average of 3 ± 1 core faculty supporting 37 ± 21 students, with 3 ± 2 faculty involved in scholarship activities of their students. Data saturation guided the number of participants. Data Collection and Analysis Interviews occurred using a semistructured interview guide. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by a 3 person research team and coded into themes and categories based on a consensus process. Credibility was established by using multiple researchers, an external auditor, and member checks. Results Two major themes emerged from the data: (1) current challenges and shortcomings and (2) resources and strategies needed to achieve scholarship. Participants noted a lack of research or scholarship culture at their current institution and a lack of faculty time and expertise to implement and guide research throughout the curriculum as current challenges. Participants further identified that a lack of clear expectations for how much scholarship was necessary and lack of buy-in from faculty, students, and preceptors made it difficult to implement scholarly projects in the curriculum. Necessary resources to overcome barriers included institutional support in the form of faculty release, support, training, or all of the aforementioned. Participants identified that collaborative research opportunities as well as publicly available examples of completed student scholarly activity would further guide them in overcoming the curricular challenge of implementing scholarship. Conclusions Internal institutional support, external peer collaboration, and public examples of success are necessary to overcome barriers to scholarship integration in professional athletic training curricula.

A National Study on the Relationship Between Programmatic Factors and Athletic Training Education Board of Certification Pass Rates

“…With the transition to PM level education, programs will need to offer more research components in their curriculums to fulfill the requirement of the master's level degree and will need additional support in developing the research component, supporting faculty and student scholarly activity. 30 Therefore, faculty with higher level research degrees and more advanced research skills will be able to assist students in the fulfillment of master's level degree requirements. Therefore, programs that are transitioning to the PM level from a bachelor's degree may benefit from both academic doctoral (PhD or EdD) and clinical doctoral (DAT) faculty to meet the demands of both the research component and the new curricular content.…”

Characteristics of highly prolific PA authors who contributed research to JAAPA and JPAE

“…Material support includes ensuring that researchers have protected time for research activities, rewarding scholarly efforts to help motivate ongoing progress including providing tenure options, making statistical support and biostatisticians available, and procuring funding for research 2,4,6,8,13,14,16…”

“…Social support includes quality mentorship, peer collaboration, and fostering a culture of research 2,6,13…”

“…4 Articles with recommendations to improve PA or health professions research showed three main domains of support: material support, educational support, and social support. 2,4,6,8,[12][13][14][15] Material support includes ensuring that researchers have protected time for research activities, rewarding scholarly efforts to help motivate ongoing progress including providing tenure options, making statistical support and biostatisticians available, and procuring funding for research. 2,4,6,8,13,14,16 Educational support includes training researchers in research skills and encouraging doctoral training.…”

“…2,4,6,8,[12][13][14][15] Material support includes ensuring that researchers have protected time for research activities, rewarding scholarly efforts to help motivate ongoing progress including providing tenure options, making statistical support and biostatisticians available, and procuring funding for research. 2,4,6,8,13,14,16 Educational support includes training researchers in research skills and encouraging doctoral training. 2,4,6,8,[12][13][14][15][16] Social support includes quality mentorship, peer collaboration, and fostering a culture of research.…”