Preceptors' Frequency and Supervision of Athletic Training Students' Medical Documentation During Clinical Education

Abstract

Context Athletic trainers (ATs) who serve as preceptors for athletic training students must model, facilitate, and guide professional skills and behaviors, including medical documentation. Preceptors have the unique ability to combine skill practice with real-time patient encounters for athletic training students. Objective To describe the frequency of preceptors who allow athletic training students to complete medical documentation and rationale for their decisions. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Qualitative study. Patients or Other Participants Of 9578 ATs, 1150 responded to an electronic survey (access rate = 12.0%), and 385 of 1150 respondents who completed an electronic survey (33.5%) indicated being a preceptor for a professional athletic training program. Respondents (age = 34 ± 11 years, clinical practice experience = 11 ± 10 years) were predominantly female (53.8%, n = 207) and held a master's degree (67.3%, n = 259). Main Outcome Measure(s) A 3-member data analysis team coded the open-ended responses following the consensual qualitative research approach. Each member coded 50 responses and a consensus codebook was created. The principal investigator coded the remaining responses, and the data analysis team confirmed the findings. Data were organized into emergent domains and categories. Frequency counts were calculated for each category. Results A majority of preceptors (81.8%, n = 315) allowed their athletic training students to document patient care. Respondents indicated an intention for student involvement (domain 1), whereby they wanted students to engage in learning and develop knowledge (43.4%, n = 167) or practice and gain experience (41.3%, n = 159). However, others discussed deterrents (20.0%, n = 77) working against the preceptor's intentions. Respondents also indicated a need to mentor (domain 2). Specifically, they reported needing to manage the logistics of documentation (63.6%, n = 245) and the degree of oversight (48.8%, n = 188) needed during practice (either direct [79.8%, n = 150 of 188] or indirect [20.2%, n = 38 of 188]). Conclusions Although preceptors intend to integrate students into medical documentation, they may benefit from formal guidance from the academic program on how to best integrate athletic training students into documenting day-to-day patient care.

Core Competency–Related Professional Behaviors During Patient Encounters: A Report From the Association for Athletic Training Education Research Network

“…preceptors, which is consistent with previous research [15][16][17][18] on PROs and documentation practices among ATs.…”

“…21 Also, ATs have noted the lack of incentive to document given that they are not reimbursed for services rendered. 18 Specific to athletic training clinical education, Neil et al 16 observed that 82% of preceptors permitted ATSs to document patient care in some capacity but that several perceived that deterrents such as patient privacy, legal concerns, and workplace structural barriers limited the opportunities for students to document at the point of care.…”

Professional Socialization: A Retrospective View From Graduation to Full-Time Employment

“…33,34 This type of autonomy not only allows the athletic training student to gain confidence, but also allows those independent decisions to be made all while receiving feedback. 35 Our data agreed with Neil et al 36 that by integrating athletic training students in all aspects of patient care, the preceptors are providing them with authentic experiences that will ultimately prepare them for the athletic training profession.…”

Athletic Training Students' Perceptions of the Immersive Clinical Experience and its Influence on their Development

“…Some athletic training students had limited experiences in various activities, such as administrative work and documentation. Documentation is one of the leading forms of communication between health care providers, 26 reinforcing the need for athletic training students to understand the depths of this administrative duty. Athletic trainers have in the past indicated that they may not completely understand their administrative role, 27 which can be assumed to be linked to their lack in clinical exposure.…”