Athletic Trainers' Perceptions of and Experiences With Professional Development Approaches for Enhancing Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Allied Health Professions

Background:

• Athletic trainers (ATs) require enhanced educational resources for clinical documentation.
• Current knowledge on how ATs acquire documentation skills is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore athletic trainers' perspectives on learning clinical documentation.
• To identify effective methods for improving ATs' documentation skills.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study utilizing web-based audio interviews.
• Twenty-nine ATs who completed continuing education (CE) clinical documentation modules were interviewed.
• Data analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research approach with multiple trustworthiness measures.

Main Results:

• ATs primarily learn documentation via professional education and workforce training, which can be inconsistent.
• Participants reported increased knowledge and confidence after completing CE modules.
• The CE modules fostered a growth mindset and intention for behavioral change.

Conclusions:

• Athletic trainers are receptive to web-based CE for clinical documentation.
• Integrating documentation principles into didactic and clinical education is recommended.
• Employers should support ATs through onboarding and ongoing training for documentation skills.