Employers' Perceptions of an Experiences Working With Residency-Trained Athletic Trainers

Context: Athletic trainers (ATs) who complete accredited residency training in a specialty area are considered clinical specialists, yet more information is needed to determine whether they are practicing within the higher capacity expected of a specialist. While some quantitative evidence demonstrating the value of residency-trained ATs on patient satisfaction, patient throughput, and the financial impact specific to the physician practice setting exists, residency training is not limited to only ATs who want to provide services in physician practice. Moreover, as accredited athletic training residency programs continue to emerge, it is increasingly important to understand key stakeholders’ perceptions of residency-trained ATs as well as their experiences working with these clinical specialists. Understanding the employers’ perception of the value of athletic training residency training is especially important since these individuals are involved in the hiring decisions of a clinical practice setting. Therefore, we aimed to explore employers’ perceptions of, and experiences working with, residency-trained ATs. Methods: We followed a consensual qualitative research design and recruited a purposeful sample of participants. We contacted our professional network of employers who have hired a CAATE-accredited orthopaedic-focused residency-trained AT to participate voluntarily. We achieved data saturation following individual videoconference interviews with 14 employers (4 physicians, 10 ATs; 11 men, 3 women; average age=42.0±7.2 years; clinical experience=17.2±7.4 years) working in the hospital/outpatient center (n=8), sports medicine/orthopaedic clinic (n=3), or college/university (n=3) setting. Following development, the 10-item, semi-structured interview guide used for this study was reviewed by 3 residency experts for content validity and piloted with 1 employer that met the study criteria to ensure clarity and flow of the interview questions. Following transcription, a 4-person analysis team coded the data into ...