Document Type

Article

Abstract

Context: When comparing success for health care professionals on certifying exams, Athletic Trainers perform lower. Other professions have identified predictors of success on their respective exams; however, Athletic Training (AT) has yet to do so. Objective: To determine the relationship between characteristics of Athletic Training Education Programs (ATEP), Program faculty and success on the Board of Certification Examination (BOC). Design and Setting: Survey. Patients or Other Participants: We solicited responses from the program directors (PD) of all 363 entry-level ATEPs and 38-52 PDs responded to various questions. We analyzed all completed responses for each item. Data Collection: We developed an internet survey to obtain information about each ATEP, PD, and program faculty. We emailed an invitation to all ATEP PDs to participate, which included a link to the survey. Analysis: We used a Spearman’s rho to determine relationships between program and faculty characteristics and success on the BOC. We used descriptive means, frequencies and cross tabulations to determine the demographics. Results: The first time BOC success rate was 70.25±18.19%. PDs varied in age (43±9 years) and teaching experience (21±10 years). ATEPs reported having several faculty (5±3 members) with many years of teaching experience (11±5 years). The number of students in the program (19±10 students) moderately correlated (r=0.464, p= 0.003) with the average number of clinical sites (15±8 sites). The number of clinical site types (4±2 types) failed to correlate with the number of students (r=-0.281, p=0.087), but moderately correlated with first time BOC success rate (r=0.390, p=0.007). Conclusions: The variety of clinical sites a program offers correlates with first time pass rate on the BOC. The number of clinical sites correlated with number of students in the program, but did not correlate with BOC success.

Publication Date

Spring 5-9-2013

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