Participation and persistence in a nontraditional allied health education program.

The results of this study suggest the following three practical applications. First, adult educators and program planners in medical record administration can use the results of achievement motivation studies in recruitment, counseling, and screening efforts in both medical record technology and nontraditional ART progression programs to determine which ART candidates possess a strong need to achieve. Once identified, these individuals may be the most successful in reducing or eliminating situational, institutional, dispositional, and informational barriers to participation and persistence. Second, to increase the number of ARTs participating in nontraditional medical record administration programs, educators need to institute counseling and support programs to encourage and assist ARTs in overcoming barriers to participation that were found in this study. Lastly, based on the finding that ARTs in this study were fairly internal in their control orientations as a group, educators will need to orient counseling and advising strategies and educational activities toward this control orientation. This can be done by providing independent learning projects, correspondence learning, and other individually oriented instructional methods. Further research is needed to determine whether findings are applicable to other medical record administration nontraditional program participants and nonparticipants and to a larger, random sample of active ARTs. A study examining the characteristics of this study in other health professions is needed to determine if professionals working in other allied health fields exhibit motivational characteristics and coping strategies similar to the ARTs in this study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)