Balancing the Roles of a Junior Faculty Member: Perspectives from Athletic Training and Physical Therapy

Context The role of a faculty member in higher education includes engaging in the 3 facets of research, service, and teaching. Allied health faculty members face additional responsibilities such as administration, patient care, and addressing external accreditation. It is not understood how junior faculty members balance these multiple roles. Objective Gain an understanding of athletic training and physical therapy junior faculty members' ability to find and maintain role balance. Design Qualitative phenomenology. Setting Accredited athletic training and physical therapy programs. Patients or Other Participants Twenty-six participants—13 physical therapists (7 male, 6 female) and 13 athletic trainers (4 male, 9 female)—completed interviews. All participants held academic terminal degrees (21 doctor of philosophy, 5 doctor of education). Main Outcome Measure(s) Data were collected using a one-on-one semistructured phone interview, which was digitally recorded and professionally transcribed. Following satur...