2 research outputs found
Lived Clinical Education Experiences of Professional Master’s Athletic Training Program Graduates
Purpose: Clinical education has been identified as a key aspect in the professional preparation of athletic trainers. The literature, however, has focused on clinical education at the undergraduate level rather than the graduate level, which is the future population of all CAATE-accredited athletic training programs. This study sought to describe the experiences of those who have completed athletic training clinical education at the master’s level, specifically focusing on the type of learning experiences they were granted and what influence the preceptor and the setting played in the overall experience. Method: This was a phenomenology study. Twelve graduates of CAATE-accredited professional master’s athletic training programs served as participants. All participants graduated after Spring 2014 and completed clinical education as a degree requirement. Three methods of data collection were utilized, including semi-structured interviews, prompted journaling and asynchronous online focus group discussion boards. Data was analyzed using a phenomenological reduction approach. Credibility of the data was confirmed with member checking, peer review and data triangulation. Results: Clinical education was determined to be a significant contributor to professional preparation of professional master’s athletic training students. Hands on-experiences, active preceptors and variety in clinical setting and opportunity were all cited as contributors to the success of clinical education. Participants described their experience as a significant commitment but valuable. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that clinical education should continue to be a requirement at the graduate level and that the clinical education curriculum should be designed to encourage hands-on learning and variety
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Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation
Human alterations to nutrient cycles[superscript 1,2] and herbivore communities³⁻⁷
are affecting global biodiversity dramatically². Ecological theory predicts
these changes should be strongly counteractive: nutrient addition
drives plant species loss through intensified competition for
light, whereas herbivores prevent competitive exclusion by increasing
ground-level light, particularly in productive systems[superscript 8,9]. Here we
use experimental data spanning a globally relevant range of conditions
to test the hypothesis that herbaceous plant species losses caused
by eutrophication may be offset by increased light availability due to
herbivory. This experiment, replicated in 40 grasslands on 6 continents,
demonstrates that nutrients and herbivores can serve as counteracting
forces to control local plant diversity through light limitation,
independent of site productivity, soil nitrogen, herbivore type and
climate. Nutrient addition consistently reduced local diversity through
light limitation, and herbivory rescued diversity at sites where it alleviated
light limitation. Thus, species loss from anthropogenic eutrophication
can be ameliorated in grasslands where herbivory increases
ground-level light.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the Nature Publishing Group and can be found at: http://www.nature.com/nature/index.htm