Effects of Clinical Field-Experience Setting on Athletic Training Students' Perceived Percentage of Time Spent on...

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to examine undergraduate athletic training students' perceptions of how time is utilized during clinical field experiences while enrolled in Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Program (CAAHEP)-accredited athletic training programs and to determine the effects of clinical field-experience length and setting, academic standing, sex, clinical assignment, and National Collegiate Athletic Association level on active learning. DESIGN AND SETTING: Using the Athletic Training-Clinical Education Time Framework (AT-CETF) and Utilizing Time and Active Learning Survey, subjects completed a 1-day, self-reported observation of how their clinical field-experience time was utilized. SUBJECTS: Program directors at 131 CAAHEP-accredited athletic training programs were sent survey packages. Seventy-two (41%) male subjects and 105 (59%) female subjects from 25 institutions completed the survey packages. Eight of the 10 National Athletic Trainers' Association districts were represented in the study. MEASUREMENTS: The AT-CETF is a behavioral time-profiling framework that measures athletic training students' perceptions of utilization of clinical field-experience time based on the performance domains associated with the 1999 National Athletic Trainers' Association Board of Certification Role Delineation Study and literature related to time and learning. RESULTS: Subjects spent 51% of their clinical field-experience time engaged in active learning, 9% in managerial activities, 17% in unengaged activities, and 23% in waiting activities. Multiple 2 x 2 x 3 analyses of variance (length of clinical field experience x academic standing x clinical field-experience setting) revealed a significant difference between the levels of clinical field-experience setting and the dependent variables of perceived percentage of active learning time and waiting time. A 2 x 3 analysis of variance (sex x clinical assignment) revealed a significant difference between the levels of clinical assignment and the dependent variable of perceived percentage of active learning time. CONCLUSIONS: The type of clinical field-experience setting and clinical assignment affects the amount of time spent in active learning. Therefore, profiling students' use of time may allow educators to identify clinical field-experience settings that maximize active learning time, expose students to their own unique learning situations, and offer students access to clinical field-experience settings aligned with their professional goals.