Athletic Training Educators' Pedagogical Strategies for Preparing Students to Address Sudden Death in Sport

Context Educational training programs both impart knowledge and allow students to practice skills to gain clinical competence. Objective Understand the educational training provided to athletic training students regarding sudden death in sport beyond exertional heat stroke. Design An exploratory, qualitative study using telephone interviews and a quantitative survey instrument. Setting Athletic training programs (ATPs) accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education. Patients or Other Participants Twelve ATP faculty members (7 men, 5 women) currently teaching content related to sudden death in sport participated. Data Collection and Analysis One-on-one semistructured telephone interviews were analyzed inductively using a grounded theory approach and open coding. Multiple analyst triangulation and peer review established data credibility. Results Four major themes emerged from the data to describe the educational experiences provided to athletic training students regarding sudden death: (1) current trends, (2) regional bias, (3) clinician experience, and (4) instructional methods. The first 3 themes were an illustration of which sudden death conditions were covered in the curriculum, as well as the depth to which each of the concepts was covered. The final theme was a reflection of methods used to deliver the information determined by the first 3 themes. Conclusions Similar to previous literature, our participants were guided by the NATA position statements to deliver educational material, used time spent in clinical education to gain hands-on learning, and discourse to facilitate preparedness.