Patient-centered care (PCC) is a core competency that should be required by all healthcare education programs, but little is known about its implementation in athletic training clinical experiences. Therefore, we examined characteristics of patient encounters documented by athletic training students implementing PCC behaviors. A multisite panel design was used to recruit 363 students from twelve professional athletic training programs (five undergraduate, seven graduate). Over 1.5 years, clinical experience patient encounter data were logged in E*Value Case Logs, including student role during the encounter, length of encounter, and clinical site. Generalized estimating equations models characterized the likelihood students included PCC behaviors in 30,522 encounters. Discussing patient goals was associated with student role (χ2(2) = 40.6, p < 0.001) and length of encounter (χ2(4) = 67.6, p < 0.001). Using patient-reported outcome measures was associated with student role (χ2(2) = 21.6, p < 0.001), length of encounter (χ2(4) = 34.5, p < 0.001), and clinical site (χ2(3) = 17.3, p = 0.001). Implementing clinician-rated outcome measures was affected by length of encounter (χ2(4) = 27.9, p < 0.001) and clinical site (χ2(3) = 8.6, p = 0.04). PCC behaviors were largely associated with student role and length of encounters; clinical site had less impact. Athletic training educators should emphasize progressive autonomous supervision with preceptors and encourage students to facilitate slightly longer patient visits, when possible, to incorporate more PCC behaviors.
Keywords: communication; goals; informatics; preceptor; student role.