Orientation Process for Newly Credentialed Athletic Trainers in the Transition to Practice

Abstract

Context: Orientation is an important part of socialization and transition to practice, yet the orientation process for newly credentialed athletic trainers (ATs) is unknown.Objective: To determine how newly credentialed ATs are oriented to their roles.Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Online survey.Patients or Other Participants: Three hundred thirty-two of 1835 newly credentialed ATs (18%) certified and employed between January and September of 2013 completed the survey (129 men, 203 women; age ¼ 23.58 6 2.54 years).Data Collection and Analysis: The survey consisted of demographic information (eg, employment setting, job title) and 2 sections: (1) orientation tactics and (2) usefulness of orientation tactics. For the first section, participants identified if various orientation tactics were included in their orientations (eg, policies and procedures review). For the second section, participants identified how useful each orientation tactic was on a Likert scale (1 ¼ not useful, 4 ¼ very useful). Descriptive statistics were calculated for each survey item. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to determine differences between demographic characteristics and orientation tactics. A Bonferroni correction accounted for multiple comparisons. A panel of experts established the content validity of the survey. The Cronbach a was used to establish internal consistency (a ¼ 0.802)Results: The most common orientation tactics were meeting with supervisors (n ¼ 276, 82.9%) and staff members (eg, coaches; n ¼ 266, 79.9%) and learning responsibilities (n ¼ 254, 76.2%). The least common orientation tactics were simulation of the emergency action plan (n ¼ 66, 19.8%) and preceptor development (n ¼ 71, 21.3%); however, preceptor development was not applicable to many participants. The most useful orientation tactics were simulating the emergency action plan (3.45/4.0) and meeting with staff members (3.44/4.0). Participants who felt their orientation prepared them for their roles were exposed to more tactics during orientation (Mann-Whitney U ¼ 17 212, P , .001).Conclusions: Many tactics were used to orient newly credentialed ATs to their roles, but orientations varied based on the practice setting.Key Words: onboarding, professional socialization, role inductance Key PointsThe orientation process for newly credentialed athletic trainers (ATs) varied by setting and job title, with many new ATs receiving little formal orientation. Employers should provide structured orientations for newly credentialed ATs to ease stress during the transition to practice. Processes used to orient newly credentialed ATs to their roles should include addressing policies and procedures, explaining the organizational mission and goals, reviewing the emergency action plan, and meeting with staff members, such as ATs, coaches, athletic directors, team physicians, and other individuals with whom the new AT will interact.

Newly Credentialed Athletic Trainers' Perceptions of Their Transition to Practice

“…15,25 As part of the onboarding process, orientation is often used to assist the new employee in understanding the roles and responsibilities, expectations, policies and procedures, and organizational values associated with the position. 5,11,14 In this study, feelings of transition to the organization were higher among participants who felt orientation had prepared them for their role. Additionally, those who better understood their roles were less likely to consider leaving the profession of athletic training.…”

“…The survey was part of a larger instrument that also examined orientations provided to newly credentialed ATs. 14 The construct items were developed through an iterative process, with the research questions in mind. We reviewed qualitative research [11][12][13] examining the experiences of ATs, from both GA ATs' and supervisors' perspectives, to develop questions related to orientations and the transition to practice.…”

“…10 Often, the graduate assistantship is used as a formal mode of transitioning newly credentialed ATs into practice, allowing new ATs to gain independent practice experience while being mentored and supported by an experienced AT. 8,[11][12][13] Transition to practice has been widely studied in nursing and is gaining more recognition in athletic training research 1,[5][6][7][8][9][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] ; however, many of these studies were qualitative in nature. Although some of the challenges and feelings associated with this transition have been ex-plored, 1,21 how specific characteristics, such as the employment setting, type of professional program, or job title, affect the newly credentialed AT's feelings during transition to practice is unknown.…”

Challenges for Newly Credentialed Athletic Trainers During Their Transition to Practice

“…Our inclusion criteria and timeframe for certification were resolute, 16 as the transition process has been described as beginning immediately after acceptance of a position and continuing through the first year of clinical practice. 18,19 We gained access to participants from a larger study 20,21 in which newly credentialed ATs completed a survey regarding their orientation and transition-into-practice experiences. At the end, the online survey solicited volunteers for a phone interview, and those who were interested were contacted directly by a researcher (S.E.W.…”

Leadership Proficiency: Perspectives of Athletic Trainers New to Practice

“…13 The term also allows for an examination of changes across years of experience in participants. Athletic training literature has examined issues of transition to practice, professional socialization, and orientation, [14][15][16][17] but has not included an examination of competency proficiency in new-to-practice ATs.…”