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.
Going back and reading my reflection made me realize that one I had really bad grammar, two I began a foundation as an athletic training student, and three I was very happy. This semester I have grown a lot. I have become more consistent, if not more prepared, with all my assignments and tests. My freshmen year helped me build a foundation on how to become successful in this major. I have figured out the best way to study for me (which took me a while, but was worth the wait) to allow me to have the best success. I believe last semester and this semester have been around the same range. However, first semester I never went through a struggling phase while I was in the clinic, but this semester I did. I was able to push myself because it was not only school that was getting down, but everything else around me. I realized that I am in this major because I am fit for it. I still enjoy every class I take, and I am excited to continue to new classes. I have become more aware of time management compared to last semester. The journals have helped keep me straight with my clinical book which is a great relief, especially for this coming up week. I am very happy with my progress as an athletic training student. I am very happy where I am, and thankful for all the opportunities I have been given. This major has allowed me to come out of my comfort zone because it forced me to be put on the spot in front of others when answering questions. I go into the clinic every day and have to perform a rehab by myself or treatment. I was able to grow more as a person because I wasn’t afraid I was doing something wrong. I have been able to grow and realize being wrong in front of others is ok, it is a way to learn. This is helped me as a student and as a person. For my clinical journal this week I took a practical which gave me 15 masteries. I have another practical this coming up week which should push me over 170 masteries! After I get all my signatures, I should be done with my clinical book for this semester which is a very good feeling. Now I can prepare for my finals and exit.
0 Comments
Its finally come to the time that I am back with my preceptor. This means that the semester is ending which is either a scary or exciting. First, I do believe I have gain a lot more confidence in the clinic. At the beginning of the semester I was afraid to take on more athletes in the clinic; however, now I go over to each preceptor and ask to help with their athlete. I also believe the preceptors have more confidence in me too. I am now asked to do pretty much any athletes treatment when they walk in the clinic. I also know more things, which helps me when different athletes come in. For example, I am a lot faster with wound care. I know what kinds of ointment to use for certain burns which is very helpful because I do not have to go and ask my preceptor what I should use. I am also faster with ankle taping. When I was on the rotation with football, I was able to tape more athletes ankles than I did in the beginning of the semester. It also helps that I am not as nervous and now I go up to athletes asking them what they need instead of waiting for them to say they need something. This semester I believe I was able to bloom. I have been able to open up and feel confident in the clinic. However, I am also able to go and ask for help when I am performing a treatment. I am not afraid to be wrong or embarrassed when I am performing treatment on an athlete and I go ask for help. I have been eager to understand my mistakes to fix them.
This week I was not able to get a mastery. I did receive multiple attempts. I was able to write down 11 attempts for this week. This coming up week I am going to get around 20 masteries, which means I will double in attempts. I am getting very close to having my clinical packet completed which is very exciting. I feel ahead of the game with my clinical packet because been writing down each week my attempts and masteries. My goal in my clinical packet has been very helpful because I have been able to follow it in order to achieve having my clinical packet finished and also branching out of my comfort zone to become a better student. Friday was the first time I was in the clinic and had the opportunity to do an evaluation. Every time I have been in the clinic I either do a rehab, a treatment, or a practice. My schedule is also so busy that it is hard for me to be in the clinic in the afternoon because I work every day. So Friday was the first time I did an evaluation. However, I was not alone on this evaluation, I was able to tag team it with Colin. Colin did most of the writing while I performed the palpation, ROM, and special tests. The evaluation was on a shoulder. I went through the whole evaluation and tried to remember my practical sheet. However, this was not the right thing to do. I got stuck in trying to remember what to do next, and I started to freak out because I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of the patient and Colin. So then, I used to patient to remember what to do. I forgot about all my memorization from my practical sheets and used the history and ROM to proceed to my next task. I was able to pin point where the pain occurred, in what position, and what made it irritated. I also found three muscles in particular that I were the most inflamed including the subscapularis, supraspinatus, teres minor. After getting to the ROM section, my preceptor came in to continue watching the evaluation. I was able to learn different ways to bilaterally check the ROM of the scapula which was helpful because the patient could not abduct their arm past 90 degrees. Throughout the evaluation I was able to perform the rest myself, and my preceptor did not say anything. By the end, I was told what I did good and what I needed to work on. I was very nervous because it’s a lot harder when trying to figure out what the patients initial injury is then just following my practical sheet. But I was also told I perform my tests right and diagnosed the patient with the correct injury. I learned from this experience that I show review my old practical sheets every Sunday (which I have already started). I have been feeling behind with remembering special tests, so I know by doing this will help me in the long run. This experience helped me realize that I couldn’t just relay on knowing my practical sheet. I need to take time to go back and put together injury and special tests for the body.
Lastly, this week was a good week for my clinical book! I wrote in 17 attempts and masteries. I was able to get them from practicing with my preceptor for my wrist and hand practical, and I got my masteries from m practical the next day. e to edit. So far this clinical semester I have been progressing slowly. I feel like I have not had a lot of time to actually sit down and learn a chapter before the professor goes over it. I knew coming in from fall semester how to handle my schedule, but this semester has been a struggle for me. I have been stressing over lots of little things, and I have not been giving myself enough time to get prepared for tests. I also have been pushing myself to get enough hours to get to 150 for this semester. I am on track right now because I just need to average about 10 hours for the next four weeks to get the minimum of 150. I have also been challenged with staying focused. I know last semester that I was very into the classes and interested to learn about all the new subjects. However, this semester has felt like a drag to me. I guess its where its getting warmer, and I am wanting to be outside more compared to fall semester when it was cold which kept me inside to study. I have been successfully this semester by being a better student on my tests/quizzes/homework. Although it may be done at the last moment, this semester I have received better grades. After rereading this journal entry, I was surprised to realize how even though I have been struggling with time, I have been able to improve my grades. I have been working really hard to improve my grades since my freshmen year because I came in thinking I would be fine, but I was way wrong and now I am working towards improving my GPA.
This week I was able to put together all my masteries and attempts for this clinical packet. I was able to view my progress, and I have been doing a lot better than what I thought. I have documented all my attempts and masteries, and this past week I was able to count all my masteries to my total which is a relief to know I am on track! This week I was able to get a lot of attempts for the wrist. I was able get all ROM, and some special tests which came out to a total of 9 attempts. I did not get any masteries this week. Although, next week I have a wrist practical which will help me to get the masteries needed to be on track with my goals in my clinical book. |
Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
|