Context: Whenever professionals have multiple role obligations in the workplace, they face potential professional role complexities. Objective: To examine whether certified athletic trainers (ATs) employed at the collegiate level experienced professional role complexities, and if so, what effect those complexities had upon their job satisfaction and intent to leave a current position or the profession. Design: Survey. Setting: We used Internet survey methods to gather information from 1000 randomly selected collegiate ATs regarding the amount of stress they felt due to role complexities. Patients or Other Participants: We obtained a random sample of e-mail addresses for 1000 collegiate ATs in the United States and contacted these individuals with an invitation to participate. A total of 348 usable responses were received, for a 36% response rate. Main Outcome Measure(s): The role complexity aspect of the survey consisted of 45 questions addressing role ambiguity, role overload, role incongruity, role incompetence, and role conflict. The job satisfaction portion consisted of global questions regarding overall job satisfaction and intent to leave the job or profession. Results: A total of 38% of respondents experienced moderate to high stress levels from role overload, whereas 23% and 22% had moderate to high levels of stress from role ambiguity and role conflict, respectively. Clinicians and joint appointees who reported moderate to high levels of stress from role complexity issues had lower job satisfaction and more frequent thoughts of leaving than did their faculty counterparts. Conclusions: The majority of collegiate ATs experienced low levels of professional role complexities and were relatively satisfied with their jobs. However, collegiate ATs began to experience less job satisfaction and more thoughts of leaving when moderate to high stress levels occurred due to role ambiguity, overload, incongruity, incompetence, and conflict. Lessening the stress due to role complexities is critical to positive employment experiences for ATs employed in higher education.

Role strain existed at moderate to high levels (mean Role Strain Score > 2.70) among ATPSSs. Interrole conflict and role overload contributed the most to overall role strain. The ATPSSs experienced role strain to a higher degree than reported in other settings.

Context:  Athletic trainers (ATs) employed in the professional sport setting (ATPSSs) demonstrate moderate to high degrees of role strain. The experiences and perceptions of these ATs provide insight regarding the sources of role strain as well as ways to reduce it. Objective:  To investigate the perceptions of ATPSSs regarding role strain. Design:  Qualitative study. Patients or Other Participants:  From a purposeful sampling of 389 ATs employed in the 5 major sport leagues (Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League), we identified 34 participants willing to participate in phone interviews. Data Collection and Procedures:  Semistructured phone interviews. Inductive data analysis was based on a grounded theory approach. Credibility was addressed with member checks and a peer debriefing. Results:  Three first-order emergent themes materialized from the data: (1) sources of role strain, (2) consequences of role strain, and (3) strategies to alleviate role strain in ATPSSs. Participants described the antecedents of role strain as emerging from the competing expectations of the professional athlete, the organization, and the sport league. Consequences of role strain included effects on direct patient care and work-life imbalance. Improving organizational factors such as inadequate staffing and poor communication within the organization were strategies described by participants for decreasing role strain in the professional sports setting. Conclusions:  Our participants discussed experiencing role strain, which was facilitated by trying to meet the competing demands placed on them with limited time and often with an inadequate support staff. Participant role strain affected health care and contributed to work-life imbalance. Participants described changing the organizational factors that contributed to role strain as a strategy to alleviate the perceived stress.

Objective: This study examined the role orientation hierarchy among teaching, research, service, and administrative responsibilities of certified athletic trainers (ATCs) employed at the collegiate level. Design and Setting: Four single response role orientation questions regarding their actual, ideal, promoted, and most appropriate role orientations were asked as part of a 45 question role complexity internet survey sent to 1,000 randomly selected collegiate ATCs. Subjects: Twenty-nine potential respondents were eliminated from the random sample after administration of the survey due to partial responses and missing data, illness, vacation and job changes. Therefore, out of 971 potential respondents, 348 usable responses were received for a 36% response rate. Measurements: Emphasizing or de-emphasizing each element of responsibility created sixteen different role orientation hierarchies involving teaching, service, research, and administration. Respondents chose one hierarchy to answer each of four questions about their actual, ideal, supervisor recommended, and feelings regarding the most appropriate role orientations for themselves and the profession. Results: Study participants report that service responsibilities were significant aspects of their job. Research was deemed as an important, appropriate, and promoted role orientation, but was not often reported as an actual role orientation. Actual role orientation hierarchies were closely aligned with supervisor expectations, with the exception of research, which was promoted more than it was performed. Conclusions: Collegiate ATCs view service responsibilities as important aspects of their job regardless of their job description, but are not performing research as much as they and their employers feel is important and appropriate for the profession.