Perceived Skills and Abilities Required by Athletic Trainers in Hospital and Clinical Management Positions: A Delphi Study

Abstract

Context: Athletic training has expanded from traditional sportteam settings to varied settings involving active populations. Athletic trainers also use their education and abilities in administration to take on roles of management in hospitals and health care clinics.Objective: To begin to explore the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed in the emerging practice setting of health care management.Design: Delphi study. Setting: Directed surveys.Patients or Other Participants: Eight athletic trainers working as hospital and health care clinic managers in varied geographic settings.Data Collection and Analysis: Three rounds of directed surveys were used and included (1) a series of demographic questions and 1 focused, open-ended question, (2) 32 statements scored on a 6-point Likert-type scale with no neutral statement, and (3) 10 statements ranked in order of importance for the athletic trainer working as a health care manager.Results: I grouped the results into 2 categories: leadership skills and management tools.Conclusions: According to participants, effective health care managers need a strong understanding of business and management tools along with more interpersonal skills in communication and leadership. The results are consistent with the literature and may be applied in athletic training education programs and by athletic trainers seeking health care management positions.

Contextual intelligence behaviors of female hospital managers in the United States

“…Professional and scholarly literature from several professional domains describe the importance of contextual intelligence in the workplace. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The purpose of this investigation was to explore how frequently contextual intelligence behaviors are practiced by female healthcare managers. Our findings indicate that 75%, (N=9) of the CI behaviors were practiced with very high or high frequency, with Multicultural leadership, Constructive use of influence, and Diagnoses context being the most frequently practiced.…”

“…[6][7] Contextual intelligence (CI) has been reported to be important and useful in a variety of industries relative to decision-making and leadership behaviors. Professionals and scholars in nursing, 8 educational research, 9 psychology, [10][11][12] counseling, 13 business, 14 politics, 15 athletic training, [16][17] medicine, 18 marketing, 19 teacher education, [20][21] global entrepreneurship, [22][23] and military strategy 24 have promoted contextual intelligence as a useful or even requisite skill. Each promotes CI for different reasons, but generally CI facilitates identifying external and internal influences that are not immediately obvious, helps in considering non-linear relationships, promotes a holistic perspective to resolve tensions among opposing ideas, and generates innovative outcomes.…”

The Significance of Leadership for Advancing Clinical Practice and Improving Patient Outcomes in Athletic Training

“…This implies an application of leadership that is not restricted to a specific context and requires discretion on the basis of changing situations and people. Providing this type of leadership requires contextual intelligence 13 and is described in the literature as the ability to interpret and react to changing surroundings. 14 Athletic training research has concluded that ATs need a high level of contextual intelligence, 13 which has been said to distinguish leaders from nonleaders 14 and is reported to be needed by physicians for navigating clinical complexity.…”

Athletic trainers’ unique clinical and teamwork skills contribute on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic: A discussion paper

“…These settings are also highly visible, fast paced, and highrisk environments with numerous stakeholders that rely on the AT to coordinate care (Hankemeier & Manspeaker, 2018;Mazerolle & Eason, 2018). Over the past 20 years, this skillset has allowed the AT to prove their value in "emerging settings" such as hospitals and clinics; military, law enforcement, and fire departments; industrial settings and the performing arts (Games et al, 2020;Hazelbaker, 2013;Prentice, 2013;Radzak et al, 2020;Sefton & Burkhardt, 2016).…”

“…They serve a primary care coordination role in these settings often providing holistic-managed care for hundreds of athletes in their organization (Mazerolle & Eason, 2018). In both these traditional and emerging settings, such as medical practices, industrial/occupational settings, military/tactical and the performing arts, the ATs skills regarding stakeholder communication; operational efficiency; innovation with limited resources; collaboration and teamwork; work ethic and conscientiousness are highly valued (Eason, Mazerolle, Monsma et al, 2015;Eason, Mazerolle, Pitney et al, 2015;Hazelbaker, 2013;Nolton et al, 2019;Pecha, 2020;Prentice, 2013;Westerman et al, 2015).…”