Barriers to Scholarship Integration in Professional Athletic Training Programs and Resources Needed to Overcome Barriers: A Report from the Association for Athletic Training Education Research Network

Abstract

Context Athletic training program administrators have identified that it is important to incorporate a scholarship component into professional education curricula. Objective Explore the barriers to implementing student scholarship in professional programs and identify resources necessary to overcome the barriers. Design Consensual qualitative research. Setting Individual teleconference interview. Patients or Other Participants A total of 17 program directors of professional programs was interviewed. Programs reported an average of 3 ± 1 core faculty supporting 37 ± 21 students, with 3 ± 2 faculty involved in scholarship activities of their students. Data saturation guided the number of participants. Data Collection and Analysis Interviews occurred using a semistructured interview guide. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by a 3 person research team and coded into themes and categories based on a consensus process. Credibility was established by using multiple researchers, an external auditor, and member checks. Results Two major themes emerged from the data: (1) current challenges and shortcomings and (2) resources and strategies needed to achieve scholarship. Participants noted a lack of research or scholarship culture at their current institution and a lack of faculty time and expertise to implement and guide research throughout the curriculum as current challenges. Participants further identified that a lack of clear expectations for how much scholarship was necessary and lack of buy-in from faculty, students, and preceptors made it difficult to implement scholarly projects in the curriculum. Necessary resources to overcome barriers included institutional support in the form of faculty release, support, training, or all of the aforementioned. Participants identified that collaborative research opportunities as well as publicly available examples of completed student scholarly activity would further guide them in overcoming the curricular challenge of implementing scholarship. Conclusions Internal institutional support, external peer collaboration, and public examples of success are necessary to overcome barriers to scholarship integration in professional athletic training curricula.