Simulated Patients Are Predominantly Used to Teach and Evaluate Athletic Training Students' Skills: A 10-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

Context: Health care education needs to include methods of teaching and evaluation that are realistic and mimic patient care. Objective: To follow up on previous research regarding the methods athletic training educators use to evaluate and teach athletic training students' clinical skills during clinical experiences and in the classroom/laboratory. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Public and private institutions. Patients or Other Participants: Program directors of all accredited professional athletic training programs as of November 2015 (N = 372) were asked to participate; a total of 90 participated. Data Collection and Analysis: The electronic survey consisted of 6 demographic questions, 6 questions regarding methods used to teach and evaluate clinical skills, and 6 items regarding barriers, educational content areas, and practice settings for real-time patient encounters. The Cronbach α determined internal consistency, α = 0.784. Descriptive statistics were computed for all items. An analysis of variance and independent t tests analyzed differences among institutions/programs with different demographic characteristics with regard to methods, barriers, educational content areas, and settings used for teaching and evaluating skills. The α level was set at .05. Results: Simulated patients and real-time evaluations were the most prevalent methods of teaching and evaluating clinical skills in the classroom/laboratory and during clinical experiences, respectively. Students' lack of self-confidence (4.10 ± 0.835) was the most common barrier during clinical experiences. The clinical examination and diagnosis (4.54 ± 0.656) and acute care of injury and illness (4.39 ± 0.775) content areas ranked highest for sufficient opportunities for real-time skill evaluation. One-way analysis of variances revealed no significant differences related to institutional/program demographics regarding opportunities for or barriers to teaching and evaluating skills. Conclusions: Ten years after our previous research, athletic training students' skills are still primarily taught and evaluated via simulated patients, with a slight increase in real-time patient encounters. Professional programs should continue using simulations and consider real-time encounters to provide additional patient care experiences.