The purpose of this article is to provide clinical instructors with information and ideas on how to utilize questioning and feedback during clinical experiences. Definitions, purpose, and examples of different questioning skills are provided. Corrective and directive feedback methods are defined with purposes and examples provided of each.

The purpose of this literature review is to compare both clinical instructor and student perceptions of helpful and hindering clinical instructor characteristics, behaviors and skills in athletic training and allied health care settings. Clinical education in athletic training is similar to that of other allied health care professions. Clinical education is used to practice didactic information in a hands-on environment, with the goal of integrating theory and practice in a controlled setting. Students are taught skills, behaviors and attitudes required to enter into professional practice. Athletic training clinical education evolved from the medical education model for training physicians and is currently based on the nursing model. Other allied health care professionals employ similar practices. Objective: To provide an overview of helpful and hindering clinical instructor characteristics, behaviors and skills in athletic training and in other allied health professions. Data Sources: MEDLINE, Health Source: Nursing/Academic, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Academic Search Premier, ERIC and PsychArticles served as the data sources for the allied health fields that included athletic training, nursing, medicine, optometry, clinical psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language pathology, radiography. Data Synthesis: Athletic trainer, allied health profession, and student perceptions of clinical instructor characteristics, behaviors and skills were reviewed and summarized. Conclusions/Recommendations: This review presents literature suggesting that clinical education, regardless of the profession or setting, contains similarities. Clinical instructor characteristics, behaviors and skills are important and need to be the focus of clinical education in order to promote helpful, while minimizing hindering, behaviors. Effective clinical instructors enhance the learning process. Focusing on improved supervisor and supervision services should be employed to teach athletic trainers helpful clinical instructor behaviors.

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 experiences for athletic training students. Background: Athletic training educators and clinical instructors often engage in discussions regarding the direct supervision of ATSs. These discussions tend to center around concerns about ATS preparation, and how the current level of preparedness differs from that of the past. Some believe that direct supervision, rather than unsupervised practice, retards the ATSs' development; however, there is no current literature to support this concept. Description: Supervision means to watch or direct, while mentoring means to tutor, instruct, or guide; therefore, mentoring may be more descriptive of the desired/intended interaction between an ATS and their clinical instructor (CI). The intent of supervision is for an ATS to refine and improve their clinical proficiencies under CI guidance. For this to occur, the CI must alter their interactions with the ATS as the student evolves. Clinical Advantages: Developing the CIs' understanding of the intent and continuum of expectations associated with direct supervision will allow them to maximize their students' education and position them to become highly skilled and confident Athletic Trainers.

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 how to evaluate athletic training students' clinical skills and proficiencies, yet are left to decide for themselves how students should be supervised. No formal supervision training is required for potential CIs/ACIs. Situational Supervision is one potential model that can be used by athletic training educators to provide guidance to CIs/ACIs regarding student supervision. This model provides a method for students to be supervised according to their knowledge base, experience and self-confidence. Objective: To present the Situational Supervision Model that can be used to develop athletic training students' clinical skills. Background: Based on Blanchard and Hersey's Situational Leadership, Situational Supervision provides CIs/ACIs with one supervision model that can be used in athletic training clinical education. Description: As students become more comfortable with clinical skills and mature in motivation and competence, CIs/ACIs need to adapt supervision styles to match the students' progressing development. Clinical Advantages: Using situational supervision, clinical instruction becomes a cooperative interaction between CIs/ACIs and athletic training students that is dependent on the students' needs and abilities, which may result in higher satisfaction and production for both the students and the CIs/ACIs.

Objective: To present the principles of adult learning and mentoring to help clinical instructors better educate athletic training students (ATSs) during their clinical experiences, with the end result being a better prepared, competent entry-level practitioner. Background: The principles of adult learning must be applied to ATS clinical education in order to develop more task mature and knowledgeable entry-level practitioners. Because clinical instructors are typically educated as clinicians rather than educators, they are generally not well-versed in the principles of adult learning, and generally do not spend a great deal of time designing learning experiences, appropriate supervision techniques, or mentoring strategies within the students' clinical experiences. Description: Concepts of adult learning, such as task maturity, self-concept, and self-directed learning, are keys to the development of competent practitioners. As espoused by Knowles, the Dreyfus five stage model of skill acquisition supports the concepts of adult learning and is easily applied to clinical education of the ATS. Modifications of this model and other adult learning models place students along a learning continuum where their progress can be enhanced or delayed depending on the instructional strategies employed by their clinical instructor (CI). Clinical Advantages: If instructional strategies are changed to correctly match the learner's progression, the learner will continue to move toward becoming a competent entry-level practitioner. These instructional adjustments will also allow the student to become more competent and self-confident in his or her clinical and decision-making skills.