摘要：Context Athletic training educators incorporate various educational strategies to teach and assess a student's clinical skill competency. These strategies vary and include simulations and standardized patients (SPs). There is currently a lack of information about the ways in which simulations and SPs are used in athletic training education and the perceptions that faculty of athletic training programs have about their use within their curricula. Objective The purpose of this study was to explore how athletic training educators are using simulations, including SPs, and their associated perceptions regarding the use of these strategies. Design Qualitative focus groups. Setting Semicircular table facing research team in a conference room at a regional educators' conference. Patients or Other Participants Twenty-one athletic training educators (6 males and 15 females, 39.4 ± 7.96 years) who currently used simulations in the education of their students participated. Main Outcome Measure(s) Semistructured focus group interviews, lasting 45 to 60 minutes, were used with a general inductive approach to analyze the data. Trustworthiness of the data was established via member checking, peer debriefing, and multiple-analyst triangulation. Results Four themes emerged from the interviews: (1) SPs, (2) simulations, (3) valued educational experiences, and (4) barriers. From these overarching themes, subthemes were also identified for each. This article will focus on the first 3 themes. Simulation includes the subthemes of group encounters, individual encounters, and feedback. Valued educational experiences include the subthemes of acute care and nonorthopaedic, orthopaedic evaluation, and communication. Six of the 21 participants were using SPs in the education of their students, while all participants were using some form of simulations. Conclusions Both simulations and SP encounters were identified as valuable educational experiences. Simulations and SP encounters were most often used in instruction or assessment of acute care or nonorthopaedic cases, orthopaedic cases, or to provide opportunities to enhance communication skills of student learners.
