Abstract
Context: Secondary school administrators fulfill many leadership roles, including creating and implementing policies to help ensure the safety of athletic programs. However, limited research has examined principals' perceptions and awareness of the athletic trainer (AT) role.
Objective: To explore secondary school principals' perceptions of athletic training and knowledge related to the roles and responsibilities of ATs.
Design: Concurrent mixed methods.
Setting: Cross-sectional online questionnaire.
Patients or Other Participants: Principals (n=686) representing public secondary schools across the United States (age = 48.1±7.8 years, years in position = 7.1±5.8).
Intervention(s): Web-based questionnaire composed of demographics, various quantitative items assessing knowledge and perceived value of ATs, and open-ended questions.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Descriptive statistics summarize demographic data. Select quantitative measures are reported as count response and overall percentages. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed inductively.
Results: We obtained a 5% response rate (686/13,517). Approximately 93% (n=637) of responding principals considered an AT to be a trusted source of medical information. The most frequently selected skills they believed ATs were qualified to perform included ‘injury prevention' (99.1%), ‘first aid/wound care' (96.5%), and ‘therapeutic intervention' (91.4%). Sixty-three percent (n=430) of respondents considered an AT ‘extremely valuable' to student-athlete health and safety. Our results indicate secondary school principals have a vague understanding of AT “training” and appreciate the immediacy of care ATs can provide. They also appear to utilize decentralized hiring practices.
Conclusions: Secondary school principals recognize the role ATs play in the immediate care of athletic-related injuries and identify ATs as a trusted source of medical information. However, principals have limited understanding of the qualifications and educational requirements of ATs. Future professional advocacy efforts, targeting this stakeholder group, should highlight all medical services an AT provides and emphasize the AT's value in schools that sponsor athletics programs.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS’ ROLE, THEIR ROLE AND POTENTIAL PRINCIPALS’ PERCEPTIONS
