Context: Entry-level athletic trainers (ATs) often lack tools necessary to help build confidence and professional networks, especially if they are the only clinicians in their facility. One-way athletic training education can help is to encourage preceptors to assist in mentoring athletic training students (ATSs) as they navigate the shift from…

Context: Athletic training programs blend didactic experiences with clinical practice opportunities with varied patient populations. Traditionally, clinical education relies heavily on the preceptor to supervise, instruct, and mentor the professional athletic training student (P-ATS) during clinical education. Objective: To describe a…

Introduction: The medical education model provides the basis for athletic training students to learn theoretical and practical skills. Clinical rotations are completed where they apply what they have learned under the direct supervision of a clinical instructor (CI) or approved clinical instructor (ACI). Approved clinical instructors are taught…

Objective: The primary objective of this paper is to present the evolution, purpose, and definition of direct supervision in the athletic training clinical education. The secondary objective is to briefly present the factors that may negatively affect the quality of direct supervision to allow remediation and provide higher quality clinical…

This editorial describes the swinging pendulum of the role of clinical supervision in relation to the clinical skill development of students in athletic training programs. In the past, students working as interns were essentially assistant athletic trainers with little direct supervision, which resulted in decisions being made with less than…