Athletic Trainer Perceptions of Importance and Confidence in Emergency Skill Application

Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterpeer-review

Abstract

Background: Athletic trainers are required to be proficient in many skills upon certification, including Emergency Management (EM), yet they are rarely utilized in everyday sport. Thus, these EM skills are often not practiced and can be forgotten. In parallel, the guidelines for catastrophic injury and prehospital care are ever changing and athletic trainers not practicing and updating these skills can find themselves behind in their knowledge, therefore leading to a false sense of confidence. The purpose of this study is to determine how athletic trainers rate their confidence in various emergency management skills pre and post an emergency management workshop.

Methods: A convenience sample of certified athletic trainers and athletic training students (certified=33, students = 5, age 34.47 years ± 10.62, male =20, female =18, years certified 9.98 ±10.9) attending EM workshop at a state meeting. Clinical setting varied (secondary=19, college =4, industrial =1, orthopedic clinic =5, academic =3 or other =6). Participants completed 21 questions pre- and eight-questions post-workshop online survey using Qualtrics. Questions included demographics and Likert-based confidence questions rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (from extremely unconfident to extremely confident). The surveys were found to be reliable (Pre Chronbach α =0.84 and Post Chronbach α =0.66). The workshop that included both didactic and hands-on skill EM skill demonstrations and practice. Overall means and standard deviations were calculated for all variables. One-way analyses of variance were completed for all twelve outcome measures of importance and confidence of various emergency skills. Three of the outcome variables, importance of refreshing EM skills, confidence in hemostatic agents, and confidence in measuring a cervical collar, did not meet assumptions of homogeneity and therefore were analyzed with Welch’s adjustment.

Results: Thirty-eight athletic trainers participated in the pre-workshop survey, answering some or all, of the questions while 38 athletic trainers participated in the post-workshop survey. Eight measures of confidence (rectal temperature, hemostatic agents, external hemostatic modalities, inline stabilization, measurement of a cervical collar, application of a cervical collar, football equipment removal, and other equipment removal) were significant (p
Conclusions: From the results of the study, we can determine that ATs may have an inflated confidence regarding EM skills. This is demonstrated by the decrease in confidence after proper instruction. As with any skill, ATs should aim to incorporate EM skills into their continuing education choices.
Original languageAmerican English
Pages15
StatePublished - 17 Feb 2023
EventOklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Research Week 2023 - Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, 1111 W. 17th street, Tulsa, United States
Duration: 13 Feb 202317 Feb 2023
https://medicine.okstate.edu/events/index.html?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D160681489

Conference

ConferenceOklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Research Week 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityTulsa
Period13/02/2317/02/23
Internet address

Keywords

  • emergency management
  • emergency skills
  • confidence
  • athletic training

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