Mary Barnum

Validation of the Quantitative Diagnostic Thinking Inventory for Athletic Training: A Pilot Study.

Context: The cognitive process of making a clinical decision lies somewhere on a continuum between novices using hypothetico-deductive reasoning and experts relying more on case pattern recognition. Although several methods exist for measuring facets of clinical reasoning in specific situations, none have been experimentally applied, as of yet, to the profession of athletic training. The Diagnostic Thinking Inventory (DTI) has been used with medical doctors and medical students to determine their level of clinical reasoning as it applies to diagnosis making. Objective: To validate the DTI for Athletic Training (DTI-AT) and associated interview questions for use in the field of athletic training. Design: Mixed methodology. Setting: Online inventory and Skype-based interviews. Patients or Other Participants: Convenience sample of 25 senior-level athletic training students. Main Outcome Measure(s): Participants completed an online version of the DTI-AT which rated clinical reasoning tendencies on a 6-point L...