Journals
These journals reflect my weekly experiences as an athletic training student. Each journal reflects either an actual patient contact experience, or something I am working on in my athletic training courses.
After listening to the seniors present their ATSO presentation, I became very interested in learning more about what athletes can take to make themselves better. There are certain athletes that are in the clinic very often for the same chronic injuries. Since I have been participating in a lot of morning treatments, I was able to see a lot of the same people come in every week. I noticed they had the same injury every time, and it wasn’t just because they had surgery. So, my group Katie, Am, and me, decided to come up with the PICO p-college athletes, I- sodium magnesium potassium, c- results of cramp relief with use of either of the three interventions, o- decrease in cramps/ return of cramps. There is one particular athlete who cramped none stop during her season and after listening to the presentation I began curious. I was with this female athlete for most of my clinical experience last year because my rotation fell with their team 3 times. So this clinical question arose between the three of us in order to figure out if there is a way to stop chronic cramping. I selected these people to be in my clinical question with me because last semester we worked really well together. We also have the same unique schedule as one another allowing us to have better time scheduling to meet with one another, especially Am and I. It is very critical to have the same schedule to be able to find time to get together because each of us doing different parts is hard to put together and know the same things. So working together we are able to know each others thoughts and what we all put into our research. We also were all very interested in the same topic, which really helped in picking a clinical group. We will all be able to participate in this clinical question and be able show feedback to one another because we are all very interested in this topic. This week I was able to reach my clinical goal again. I was able to get more than 7 masteries due to having a practical with Brianna. Throughout the week I was also able to get all my attempts for my goal. This week I was able to double my attempts, as I perform attempts with both Brianne and Chapypin to prepare myself for my practical. I was able to get 23 attempts. I also completed a personal goal, this week I prepared very hard for my shoulder practical and I was able to perform every shoulder special test on Briannes practical.
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I am currently with Womens basketball rotation, but will be switching this Monday to mens basketball. However, they both we typically have the same medical and emergency supplies. First I would make sure my medical kit has a lot of gloves, guaze, adhesive dressings, band-aids as all sizes, scissors, all kinds of tapping (non adhesion and adhesion tape), pre wrap, elastic bandages, a variety of medicines including, asprin, advil, antihistamines for any allergic reaction, itching cream/ antibiotic cream, instant cold and hot packs, eye solution, blood stopper powder, hydrogen peroxide, CPR mask, mouth guards, tape adherent, heel and lace pads. I would also want on hand an AED, splint bag, and spine board; however, we do keep these in the clinic due to not having much in stock. So I would keep in mind that those are in the AT if needed. I believe these items will fit best for the basketball team because of their injuries they tend to have. Mainly having prewrap and tape for these athletes is essential. There are a lot of times when they get scratched or cut their body, and having gloves, guaze and band aids is essential for the team. Lastly, having ace bandages is important because throughout the season many athletes begin having tight muscles and using the ace bandage to prevent pulling a muscle is also very important to the basketball team medical kit. Throughout all the basketball practices I have attended, that is the main item used during the practice. However, having these other medical items just in case if need be is also important because you never know injury can occur. For my attempts and masteries for this week include 18 attempts and 0 masteries. I was able to get a lot of attempts during Briannes class this week and was able to document all of them that we performed in class. This allows me to conclude the goal of having my attempts. However, for masteries I have the next week to complete my goal of getting 7 masteries every two weeks. I believe I will have this completed this week because we have a practical. I am on track with my masteries and attempts this semester to completing my goals. Lastly, another important goal to me is knowing more special tests than I did last year. This week will be really critical for me to buckle down to allow this to happen. I have a shoulder practical which is a lot of test. However, I have been studying this past weekend to know all of the shoulder tests that are both in my clinical book and for my practical this week. Many athletes/spectators see Athletic Trainers as just a “personal trainer” because all many people see is that we get water for the athletes and help them stretch. However, they are all wrong. They do not see what we do in the clinic, and how each athletic training student is taught to help in the clinic. Many of the athletes still do not understand someone the treatment athletic trainers perform on them. However, they just see us as a personal trainer to them. I personally get upset when people call athletic trainers “trainers” because we do so much more for the athlete. When I would hear people call the AT’s trainers, at first I didn’t quite understand the difference; however, there is a huge difference. I now get offended when I hear athletes call us a trainer because trainers can take a course and be certified, AT’s have taken a major throughout college in order to achieve this profession. There is a huge difference that all athlete should be aware of. All the classes we have to take in order to learn how to use the machines or the proper way to to massage an athlete in order for them to have the best outcome out the treatment. When athletes come into the clinic to get taped, they just think we have been taught the easy way to tape an ankle. Well again, they’re wrong. There is so many techniques AT’s have to learn in order to allow the athlete to play safely. For example, when taping an ankle, it seems every tape is the same when the athletes come in. Although if the athlete rolled his or her ankle an eversion way, they would not have the same tape job. The public sees us as just being there to help the athletes when they need stretched or muscles are tight, but we help them be successfully in playing by allowing them to be safe and healthy with their treatment.
Throughout this week I was able to achieve 13 attempts and 1 mastery. So far I am continuing down the right path with my goals. I have been able to master my goals for the past 3 weeks. I am going to continue making this progress throughout the semester because I know this will help me in the long run. I have been keeping better track of all my attempts, and more importantly studying each of them before I write down my attempt making sure next time I am ready to get a mastery.
When I reviewed my course objectives for ATR 340 to related back to something I experienced this week, I found two that resembled my week for me: cervical spine trauma and use standard techniques and procedures for the clinical examination of common injuries, conditions, illnesses, and diseases including, but not limited to: history taking, inspection/observation, palpation, functional assessment, selective tissue testing techniques/specials test, and neurological assessment. This week throughout ATR 340 I have focused a lot on learning the cervical spine. This course objective explains exactly what I learned this week. I was able to perform an entire cervical spine injury assessment with all of those course objectives included. This experience has enhanced my learning in this course by allowing me to learn everything for a cervical spine injury. Not only did I enhance my learning on the cervical spine, but I was also able to perform my assessment of a cervical spine injury. I was very confident throughout my ATR 340 class this week, because of the extra studying I have been doing in order to achieve this course objective. This week for my ATR 340 class included completely knowing how to perform a cervical spine injury, which this objective completely expresses. I can say by the end of this week, I feel confident that I could perform an assessment for a cervical spine injury. I have focused throughout this week with a new way to study to be confident to perform this task. I not only practiced with an older AT student, but I also performed this assessment with a preceptor. I want to be more confident when injuries come into the clinic. So this week I felt I successfully perform cervical injury assessment well on all three occasions. This week I was able to get 24 masteries and 13 attempts. I was able to meet my goal for this week. I have been pushing myself this semester to focus on my goals in my clinical book. I have been able to finally get my attempts and masteries completed for this week. I was also able to meet another goal of mine that is really important to me. I want to be able to perform most of the special tests I learn in upper by the end of the semester. This week I have successfully learned the cervical tests. I feel confident that I know all of them. So, I have completed one part of this goal. I believe by the end of the semester I will able to perform all of the cervical special tests at the end of the semester with confidence. |
Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
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