Perceived stress and coping skills in professional master's level athletic training students

Background: As athletic training education continues to expand, it is important to consider the amount of stress students experience and what coping skills they use to mitigate it. Although there is considerable research on athletic training students and perceived stress (PS), there are few studies related to students enrolled in professional master's programs (MAT) regarding stress.Methods: Cross-sectional design with current students in Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) accredited MAT programs (males=42, females=99, age=23.42 ± 2.91 years). Program directors were asked to forward a link to students in their respective MAT programs. The survey included a brief demographics section (age, gender, year in school, learning model). Two surveys were included: The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (reliability a=0.78) to measure perceived stress (PS), and the Coping Orientation to Problem Experience (COPE) inventory (reliability a=0.73) to measure coping skills (CS). Means and standard deviations were calculated for the PSS and 15 subscales of the COPE. One-way ANOVA's were calculated for PSS utilizing demographic variables. Pearson correlation analysis was used to calculate most significant CS, and the impact of them.Results: A mean PSS score (24.84 ± 7.267) revealed a moderate level of PS in MAT students. ANOVA demonstrated increased PS in females, in comparison to males (F(1,139) =4.93, p=.03). Pearson correlation analysis established multiple significant coping skills. Age revealed positive correlations with positive reinforcement (r=0.168, p=0.05), active coping (r=0.25, p <0.01), and acceptance (r=0.25, p <0.01); and negative for PS (r= - 0.18, p=0.03). Gender revealed significant correlations for females in venting (r= -0.19, p=0.02), social support (r= -0.22, p <0.01), and emotional support (r= -0.20, p=0.02). Year 2 of schooling demonstrated a significant correlation with mental disengagement (r=0.25, p <0.01). Learning model presented significant correlations with venting (r=0.18, p <0.01) and mental disengagement (r= -0.171, p <0.05). Perceived stress demonstrated significant correlations with positive reinforcement (r= -0.25, p <0.01) mental disengagement (r=0.188, p <0.05), venting (r=0.36, p=0.00), active coping (r= -0.27, p=0.001), denial (r=0.25, p <0.01), behavioral disengagement (r=0.39, p=0.00), substance use (r=0.25, p <0.01), and planning (r= -0.30, p=0.00).Conclusions: Our data suggests that female MAT students experience more PS than males. As age increases, the use of constructive coping skills increases. However, overall, MAT students use CS that are more detrimental to stress. These results can assist students and professors in recognizing and using healthier alternatives to cope with stress

Health behaviors in athletic trainers

Introduction: Athletic trainers (ATs) are healthcare professionals that care for the physically active. Because of this, it is estimated that ATs are healthy. Numerous research studies have demonstrated the benefit of health role-modeling and the beneficial effects it has on patients, but currently there is not data relating to ATs. This research explores the health behaviors that ATs demonstrate and what it means for patients.Methods: A pilot study was first used to determine reliability. Following the pilot, a quantitative study was conducted through a self-report survey sent to a specific pool of members in the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA). It measured body measurement index (BMI), physical activity (PA), diet, weight-loss dieting behavior, disordered eating behavior, and work ability.Participants: 265 ATs (main study) met inclusion criteria for participation.Analysis: Data was analyzed based on research question. The first asked differences between BMI, PA, and nutrition by gender, years certified, setting, and region. Analyses of variance were used to determine differences. The second used chi square test to determine differences in dieting behavior between the same demographics in research question one, and then if disordered eating patterns related with that dieting behavior. The third used ordinal regression to predict differences in work ability (physical and mental), through BMI, gender, years certified, region, and type of work.Results: Question one demonstrated significance with gender and BMI, and light PA and setting. Females had a lower BMI than males, but no differences were observed with setting due to low power. The second question also demonstrated significance with: "Have you dieted?" and females, "how long have you kept the weight off?" and greater than 20 years certified, "are you currently on a diet?" and a greater disordered eating score, "have you ever dieted?" and a greater disordered eating score, and "how long did you keep the weight off?" and a greater disordered eating score.Conclusion: Though ATs may work with a physically active population, they appear to be "cutting corners" when it comes to their own health. This may reflect poorly on patient adherence and health due to poor health role-modeling

Can self-efficacy predict first year medical students' academic success?

Background: Self-efficacy (SE), the ability for an individual to believe in their own capabilities, has been connected to an individual's ability to succeed, deal with resistance and failures, and cope with challenges, all skills that are essential for competent physicians. SE has been found to have a positive impact on college student academic performance, but has not been evaluated in medical students. The purpose of this study was to measure first year medical students' SE and to determine what characteristics impacted their academic success in their first semester of medical school.Summary of Work: 61 (29 male, 32 female) first year medical students at a single osteopathic medical school were asked to complete the SE scale and additional demographics. Data was combined with undergraduate (UG) GPA, MCAT score, first semester GPA, and class rank. Basic descriptives, means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlation values were calculated.Summary of Results: Four variables were found to be significantly correlated with first semester GPA (level of athletic performance of UG r=.311, p=.015; number applications submitted r= -.414, p=.000; UG GPA r=.488, p=.000; science GPA r=.467, p=.000) and three with class rank (number applications r=.355, p=.005; UG GPA r= -.483, p=.000; science GPA r= -.495, p=.000). General SE was significantly correlated to the size of hometown (r=.256, p=.049).Discussion & Conclusions: This study determined that medical students' first semester academic success was better predicted by academic preparation rather than a student's self-efficacy. This is in contrast to current undergraduate literature that demonstrates a significant impact on GPA and retention. Self-efficacy may therefore be more applicable to astute clinical skills rather than pre-clinical academic performance.Take Home Message: While this study did not find SE to be a predictor of first year medical student academic performance, the ability to control thoughts, feelings, and actions in stressful situations is critical to overall success as a physician. Academic programs should seek out options to assess and improve these skills prior to entering the clinical setting

Patient perceptions in receiving LGBTQIA culturally competent health care

Background: There is a large amount of documented evidence demonstrating that health care providers are caring for diverse populations. This warrants a level of cultural competence (CC) when making health care decisions. Traditionally, Race and ethnicity have been the focus in CC. However, criteria such as sexual orientation and gender identity are often forgotten, or left out altogether. Because of this, patients whose sexual orientation or gender is a minority, may often receive inadequate treatment. This is in part due to the health care providers lack knowledge in this type of CC or present sexual prejudices. Because of this, research is needed to investigate the perceptions of patients that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, ally (LGBTQIA) when receiving health care.Methods: Cross-sectional design consisting of 140 participants (male=78, female=50, transgender=5, other=7; heterosexual=16, gay/lesbian=72, bisexual=43, other=9, mean age=26.97 ± 7.67). Participants were recruited using a snowball sampling method via email and list-serves. A modified version of the Gay Affirmative Practice (GAP) (reliability a = 0.962), was delivered online to participants to determine need of LGBTQIA cultural competent treatment by health care providers. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each variable (gender, sexual orientation), as well as an overall GAP score (out of 150). Two, single one-way ANOVAs (gender and sexual orientation) were performed with GAP score as the dependent variable.Results: Calculated GAP scores: All=128.82 ± 18.48, male=128.49 ± 15.60, female=130.35 ± 17.10, transgender=129.80 ± 9.31, other=143. 57, heterosexual=129.33 ± 17.12, gay or lesbian=128.25 ± 15.85, bisexual/omni/pansexual/queer/non-monosexual=132.79 ± 14.99, other=131.38 ± 20.37. ANOVA results were modified with Kruskal-Wallis adjustments due to violation of normality and homogeneity of variance, and now are represented by Chi Squares. Gender was the single significant outcome, (X2(3) =8.01, p <0.05). Post hoc testing of gender demonstrated statistical significant in comparing males vs. other.Conclusions: Patients do find it necessary for health care providers to have specific training and/or knowledge in LGBTQIA CC. A majority of results demonstrate strongly agree that health care providers need better CC in LGBTQIA. In comparison of GAP scores in gender, the category of other demonstrates a great need for CC in LGBTQIA in health care providers. Males demonstrated a much lower score, indicating a low priority for LGBTQIA CC in health care. With an increasing LGBTQIA patient population, patients feel the ever increasing need for health care providers to provide knowledgeable, competent, and fair treatment/care

Improving interprofessional practice and cultural competence with interprofessional education

Challenge/Issue: Interprofessional education (IPE) and cultural competence (CC) training have become a staple in healthcare education programs with the ultimate goal of improving patient care. IPE, where students from two or more professions learn from, about, and with each other to optimize care, resulting in great team building, sharing of knowledge, communication, and collaboration. CC involves an individual’s ability to recognize, assess, appreciate, and respect unique backgrounds such as race, ethnicity, sexual minorities, gender, identity, religion, and age, to make greater informed decisions in healthcare and minimize inequities. Within educational programs, both constructs can occur simultaneously to optimize learning and patient-centered outcomes.Objective: To identify the impact of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion IPE single-day event on the perceptions of interprofessional practice and ability to provide culturally competent care instudents enrolled in Doctor of Osteopathy (DO), Pharmacy, and Athletic Training (AT) education programs.Approach: An experimental design used pre- and post-test measures of IPE and CC knowledge with a one day conference as the intervention. Participants included students (205- pre and 200- post) enrolled in DO, pharmacy, and AT programs at two Midwestern universities. Participants completed the Interprofessional Collaborative Competences Attainments Survey (ICCAS) and three modified components of the Tool for Assessing Cultural Competence Training (mTACCT) before and after the event that included baseline information about the different professions, three CC presentations, and two case studies with small group discussions. Due to uneven sample sizes in the pre- and post-test, and violations of normality and homogeneity of variance, Kruskal Wallis tests were used to assess differences in the intervention.Results: Five items on the ICCAS and all items on the mTACCT demonstrated statistical significance. On the ICCAS, students demonstrated increases in their ability to; “actively list to Interprofessional (IP) team members’ ideas and concerns”, “working effectively with IP members to enhance care", “recognizing how others’ skills and knowledge complement and overlap with their own”, “to develop an effective care plan with IP team members”, and “negotiate responsibilities with overlapping scopes of practice”. This demonstrated that discussing the professions in general and utilizing case studies and small group discussions allowed students to understand the roles, skills, and responsibilities of their peer professionals which will lead to better communication and teamwork resulting in improved patient outcomes and satisfaction for both patients and staff. The results of the mTACCT demonstrated overall improvement in skills but highlighted students are consciously incompetent, where they recognize a deficiency but demonstrate a desire for greater understanding. Students felt that initially they lacked the ability to identify bias and stereotyping in healthcare but after the intervention felt better equipped. It is important to note that while we found improvements within CC, a single event should not be the only point of CC inclusion within curriculums. Our intervention provided students from three different healthcare programs with an educational opportunity to strengthen their skills in both IPE and C

Basic Mental Health Skills in Exercise Science Related Fields

The focus of this presentation is understanding mental health: what it is, why it is important, detection of disparities, offering support, and the referral process

Impact of the first year of medical school on anthropometric measurements

Background: First-year medical students are placed under a great amount of stress upon starting their medical education. Chronic stress has negative impacts on the mental and physical condition of individuals. Persistent stress can lead to lead increases in various physiological measurements including blood pressure, BMI, resting heart rate, respiration rate, and pulse oximetry. In addition, medical students also have stressors outside the walls of medical school that cause increases in these measurements. The purpose of this study was to track first-year medical students' BMI, blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and pulse oximetry over the first semester of medical school.Methods: Medical students were solicited to participate. At the beginning of the semester data collection, participants were asked to complete an online survey for demographic information, and then their blood pressure, heart rate, pulse oximetry, respiratory rate, height in cm, and weight in kg were collected. At the end of the semester, participants returned to have their anthropometric measurements retaken. BMI was calculated using height and weight. Data were uploaded into SPSS for analysis. Means, standard deviations, and frequencies were calculated for variables. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to determine differences over the course of the semester. T-tests were also used to determine differences in variables at each individual data collection point for parametric data and Mann-Whitney analyses were run on non-parametric data.Results: A convenience sample of 28 medical students (male = 16, female = 12, age = 24.86 + 4.16) participated in the study. The paired samples t-test demonstrated statistical significance for BMI (t=- 2.362, p<0.05) and weight (t=-2.364, p<0.05) with students demonstrating an increase in both. T-tests analyzing differences in variables at the initial data collection demonstrated differences in sex assigned at birth and systolic blood pressure (t=2.39, P=0.02), gender identity and systolic blood pressure (t=2.39, p=0.02), and children in the house and BMI (t= -2.10, p<0.05). This demonstrated that males (both sex assigned at birth and gender identity) had higher levels of systolic blood pressure while those individuals who had children living in the home had a higher BMI. Additionally, within the first data collection, a statistical difference was determined by a Mann Whitney between Being Affiliated with a Native Tribe and diastolic blood pressure (Z= -2.26, p=0.02), with non-natives having higher diastolic blood pressure. T-tests for the second data collection demonstrated differences between children in the house and BMI (t=-2.12, P=0.04) and children in the house systolic blood pressure (t= -2.41, p=0.02), demonstrating those with children had higher values.Conclusions: Attending medical school, although a privilege, ultimately can have negative impacts on students. This study was able to show that the overall rigor and lifestyle of a medical student along with outside factors can negatively impact one's health in terms of weight, BMI, and blood pressure. With that, schools should be encouraged to offer health and wellness programs that students can utilize to improve their overall health. These resources can include but are not limited to, on sight gym, fitness classes, counseling, nutrition classes, mental health resources, and support for habits outside of medical school. You need a statement here on what medical schools can do to mitigate the impact of stress on these measures

Tevatron Run II combination of the effective leptonic electroweak mixing angle

International audienceDrell-Yan lepton pairs produced in the process pp¯→ℓ+ℓ-+X through an intermediate γ*/Z boson have an asymmetry in their angular distribution related to the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the electroweak force and the associated mixing of its neutral gauge bosons. The CDF and D0 experiments have measured the effective-leptonic electroweak mixing parameter sin2θefflept using electron and muon pairs selected from the full Tevatron proton-antiproton data sets collected in 2001-2011, corresponding to 9–10  fb-1 of integrated luminosity. The combination of these measurements yields the most precise result from hadron colliders, sin2θefflept=0.23148±0.00033. This result is consistent with, and approaches in precision, the best measurements from electron-positron colliders. The standard model inference of the on-shell electroweak mixing parameter sin2θW, or equivalently the W-boson mass MW, using the zfitter software package yields sin2θW=0.22324±0.00033 or equivalently, MW=80.367±0.017  GeV/c2

Tevatron Combination of Single-Top-Quark Cross Sections and Determination of the Magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix Element Vtb\bf V_{tb}

We present the final combination of CDF and D0 measurements of cross sections for single-top-quark production in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data correspond to total integrated luminosities of up to 9.7 fb$^{−1}$ per experiment. The t-channel cross section is measured to be σ$_t$=2.25$_{-0.31}^{+0.29}$ pb. We also present the combinations of the two-dimensional measurements of the s- vs t-channel cross section. In addition, we give the combination of the s+t channel cross section measurement resulting in σ$_{s+t}$=3.30$_{-0.40}^{+0.52}$ pb, without assuming the standard model value for the ratio σ$_s$/σ$_t$. The resulting value of the magnitude of the top-to-bottom quark coupling is |V$_{tb}$|=1.02$_{-0.05}^{+0.06}$, corresponding to |V$_{tb}$|>0.92 at the 95% C.L