Attributes of a Certified Athletic Trainer, Found Desirable by the Collegiate Athlete
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Artist Statement
Context: Little research has been done on the attributes desired by collegiate athletes seen to improve their trust in an Athletic Trainer (AT). It is believed that decreased athlete satisfaction, will prevent athletes from reporting injuries to their respective AT. And a lack of trust will impact athlete compliance towards rehabilitation. Attributes desired in our survey will lead to increased athlete satisfaction and trust, resulting in more positive health outcomes due to increase athlete compliance.
Objective: To understand which attributes are found most desirable by collegiate athletes in their AT.
Design: Cross sectional quantitative survey.
Setting: Qualtrics Programming online.
Patients: A convenience sampling technique was used to recruit participants for this study. A total of 99 emails were sent requesting participation. Forty seven (men=16, women=31) Division I Track and Field athletes completed the survey for a response rate of 47.5%.
Interventions: An electronic survey, the Athletic Trainer Attribute Survey (ATAS) contained 33 five point Likert scale items addressing the importance of AT characteristics, competency, and relatability.
Main Outcome Measures: Cronbach Alpha was used to establish internal consistency of the ATAS as well as each subscale within the ATAS. One-way ANOVAs were run to assess if gender had an influence on the top three attributes in each subscale. Means, standard deviation as well as frequencies and percentages of each attribute were also calculated.
Results: Overall survey internal consistency, Cronbach alpha = 0.934; for the characteristics subscale, Cronbach alpha = 0.940; for the relatability subscale, Cronbach alpha = 0.898; and the competencies subscale was Cronbach alpha= 0.827. The top attributes deemed extremely important in each subcategory were trustworthiness (n=37/43), working knowledge of the athlete’s sport (n=29/43) and injury evaluation/diagnostic skills (n=33/43). One-way ANOVA results reported that female’s valued communication (p=.057), exercising on a regular basis (p=.047), injury prevention (.043) and therapeutic intervention (p=.002) higher than males.
Conclusion: The attributes found to be extremely important (Communication, trustworthiness, working knowledge of sport, injury prevention and therapeutic interventions skills) will increase the satisfaction and trust each athlete has in their AT. If you have the trust of your athlete it will increase the quality of your relationship, resulting in positive health outcomes and easier facilitation of the injury process.
Mentor Name
Valerie Moody
Attributes of a Certified Athletic Trainer, Found Desirable by the Collegiate Athlete
UC North Ballroom
Context: Little research has been done on the attributes desired by collegiate athletes seen to improve their trust in an Athletic Trainer (AT). It is believed that decreased athlete satisfaction, will prevent athletes from reporting injuries to their respective AT. And a lack of trust will impact athlete compliance towards rehabilitation. Attributes desired in our survey will lead to increased athlete satisfaction and trust, resulting in more positive health outcomes due to increase athlete compliance.
Objective: To understand which attributes are found most desirable by collegiate athletes in their AT.
Design: Cross sectional quantitative survey.
Setting: Qualtrics Programming online.
Patients: A convenience sampling technique was used to recruit participants for this study. A total of 99 emails were sent requesting participation. Forty seven (men=16, women=31) Division I Track and Field athletes completed the survey for a response rate of 47.5%.
Interventions: An electronic survey, the Athletic Trainer Attribute Survey (ATAS) contained 33 five point Likert scale items addressing the importance of AT characteristics, competency, and relatability.
Main Outcome Measures: Cronbach Alpha was used to establish internal consistency of the ATAS as well as each subscale within the ATAS. One-way ANOVAs were run to assess if gender had an influence on the top three attributes in each subscale. Means, standard deviation as well as frequencies and percentages of each attribute were also calculated.
Results: Overall survey internal consistency, Cronbach alpha = 0.934; for the characteristics subscale, Cronbach alpha = 0.940; for the relatability subscale, Cronbach alpha = 0.898; and the competencies subscale was Cronbach alpha= 0.827. The top attributes deemed extremely important in each subcategory were trustworthiness (n=37/43), working knowledge of the athlete’s sport (n=29/43) and injury evaluation/diagnostic skills (n=33/43). One-way ANOVA results reported that female’s valued communication (p=.057), exercising on a regular basis (p=.047), injury prevention (.043) and therapeutic intervention (p=.002) higher than males.
Conclusion: The attributes found to be extremely important (Communication, trustworthiness, working knowledge of sport, injury prevention and therapeutic interventions skills) will increase the satisfaction and trust each athlete has in their AT. If you have the trust of your athlete it will increase the quality of your relationship, resulting in positive health outcomes and easier facilitation of the injury process.