Purpose: The purpose of this study was two-fold and consisted of the development of a skills-based model for Case-by-Collaboration (CBC) and the collection of qualitative data from students and teachers aimed at answering the research question: What skills do individuals (students) apply during the completion of a hypothetical medical laboratory management-based Case-by-Collaboration capstone project? Method: A consensual qualitative research design was selected for this study. Students and their instructors from three Medical Laboratory Science programs located in Texas, New York, and Missouri were recruited. Students were given a case that centers on the fictitious Cheapskate Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). The project culminated when each team presented their proposal to become the sole provider of laboratory testing services to the Cheapskate HMO Board of Directors (BOD). The project was initially designed to be accessed and completed online, where students from different institutions would come together and remotely complete the requirements. Data were collected through in-person observations of the final presentation, semi-structured interviews with students and instructors, and analysis of project documents. Data was coded, and transcripts were reviewed numerous times. Two strategies were employed to ensure the integrity of the study. First, the coded data were examined across the data collection strategies, transcripts containing the data, and the themes identified by a researcher and an outside auditor. Secondly, an audit trail was established to document how the data were collected and analyzed, along with documentation of the thought processes used in the data interpretation phase of the project. Results: The current study analyzed responses from 36 students and 5 instructors across the three data collection sites. Seven themes, in the form of skill sets, were identified in the data analyzed:1) information technology, 2) collaboration/team building, 3) verbal and written communication, 4) clinical reasoning, 5) creativity, 6) managerial, and 7) research/investigative. Conclusion: These results suggest the CBC can develop desirable soft skills. This model can be transferrable and apply to CBCs independent of the studied content. Thus, the CBC is an innovative model to teach soft skills across health disciplines.

Purpose: Athletic training is a demanding profession that is a stressor for many practitioners. Emotional resilience allows Athletic Trainers (ATs) to persist in their roles and benefit from long and successful careers. The purpose of this study was to explore the level of emotional resilience of ATs working in secondary school settings and identify factors perceived to contribute to or mitigate one's emotional resilience. Method: A sequential explanatory mixed-method design using a cross-sectional online survey followed by in-depth interviews was used to gather information from 160 (16% response rate) secondary school NATA members - 97 (60.6%) female; 63 (39.4%) male with 13.28+9.46 years of experience. Six individuals (5 female, 1 male) participated in a follow-up semi-structured interview. The Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was used to measure perceptions of individual emotional resilience. Open-ended questions were also used to gather information from the participants who agreed to participate in a follow-up semi-structured interview about the factors perceived to both facilitate or reduce emotional resilience. Results: The mean emotional resilience score (79.84 ± 11.38) for the sample was consistent with the average US adult population. Only 14.1% of the sample reported high emotional resilience scores. There was a significant positive correlation between emotional resilience scores and years of experience as an AT (r(158) = .16, P = .048) and age in years (r(158) = .16, P = .048). There was no significant difference between emotional resilience and academic degree earned (F(2,157) = .775, P = .83). The inductive analysis resulted in the following emergent themes that were perceived to facilitate ones’ emotional resilience: social support, communication, self-care, and past experiences. Also, the following emergent themes were perceived to reduce ones’ emotional resilience: emotional responses and role overload. Conclusion: The results of this study help understand secondary school ATs' perceptions of and factors that contribute to their emotional resilience. Strategies are suggested to help ATs develop emotional resilience to manage their occupational stress and reduce feelings of burnout.

Concussion is associated with persistent motor control deficits that may not be detected using standard clinical assessments. This study examined differences in average velocity, average step length, and single- and double-support percentages during gait under increasing task demands in individuals with a history of concussion. Sixty participants aged 18 to 35 years were recruited, including 32 individuals with a concussion within the past 3 to 18 months and 28 healthy controls. Gait data were collected using an instrumented pressure-sensitive walkway across four conditions: single-task and dual-task walking, with and without obstacles. Repeated-measures analyses of covariance were used to assess group and condition effects, with sex as a covariate, which showed a significant group-by-condition effect for step length, single-support percentage, and double-support percentage. These findings identify step length, single-support percentage, and double-support percentage as candidate sensor-derived gait biomarkers for detecting persistent post-concussion motor control alterations. The results directly support the use of pressure-based gait sensing to quantify deficits missed by conventional clinical measures; however, future work is needed to determine whether these features translate to wearable or real-world monitoring systems.