Reciprocal Learning Among Preceptors and Athletic Training Students During Clinical Education, Part II: Facilitators and Barriers

Abstract

Context:Reciprocal learning appears to be occurring in athletic training clinical education. Students and preceptors can learn from one another, particularly if both parties are open to learning from each other.Objective:Examine facilitators and barriers to reciprocal learning in the athletic training clinical education setting.Design:Exploratory qualitative study.Setting:Athletic training programs.Patients or Other Participants:Our recruitment, which was based upon data redundancy, included 10 preceptors and 10 athletic training students. The preceptors had an average of 5 ± 3.5 years of experience supervising students. The athletic training student sample consisted of 8 seniors and 2 juniors.Main Outcome Measures:Participants responded to a series of questions by journaling their thoughts and opinions. Data were collected and stored on QuestionPro, a secure website. Data were analyzed by a general inductive approach. Credibility was established by (1) researcher triangulation, (2) peer review, and (3) member checks.Results:The relationship between the preceptor and the student along with reception to reciprocal learning emerged as facilitators, while a lack of confidence on the students’ behalf and time constraints can limit chances for reciprocal learning.Conclusions:Reciprocal learning has been identified as being mutually beneficial to the student and preceptor. Our findings highlight that for this type of learning to be successful, there has to be a communal interest in learning and that the use of current clinical cases and students’ current coursework provide benchmarks for discussion and learning.