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.
There are many different healthcare professions that provide a different type of treatment to a patient. As an athletic trainer there are multiple aspects that we are apart of which alienates our healthcare profession away from others. We deal solely with athletes which is also different from healthcare providers. But there are some things as an athletic trainer that have a downfall because the outsiders don’t see everything that the athletic training job profession contains. This creates some challenges that athletic trainers face because they don’t get as much credit as they deserve when compared to other health professions. We are on the same level as other healthcare professions because we are just as qualified, however, its not always seen that way from others. This is more common when compared to doctors when athlete is needing diagnosis or injury. Many people do not believe in the athletic training field to be able to correctly diagnosis an injury. Once an athlete has an injury, they want to go see a doctor and be told their injury instead of listening to what the athletic trainer says. However, we can and will continue to be able to correctly diagnose an injury. We do not have the same tools that other health professions have which makes it harder for us to asses the diagnosis of an injury. Although, that is not in our professional field to be able to use imaging tools to clarify an injury. So, we do everything we can to be able to correctly analyze the injury. Another challenge athletic trainers face is being called the “water boys.” To fans or other spectators, athletic trainers look like all they do is fill up the water for the players. They do not know what goes on behind the doors of being an athletic trainer and the impact we have on the athletes. Athletic trainers get judged by just watching from the stands which gives them an impression of what they think athletic trainers do. This starts an idea of what athletic trainers consists of. This is how others perceive athletic trainers, but they do not know what we do in the clinic. Lastly, athletic trainers are seen only to help with injuries, but we are able to do both mental, emotional, and physical. We take care of the whole athlete not just their injuries. As an athletic trainer we deal with mental and emotional stresses daily.
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Throughout my years in the Athletic Training program, I believe I have had an extreme gradual increase in my skills. My sophomore year when I began this program I was very shy to the point where I wouldn’t even ask questions to my preceptor or even my professors. I felt this way because I didn’t want my classmates or professors to think less of me, and this was not the way to go. Due to feeling this way I needed to find a break through and step out of my confront zone. So I did, and boy am I glad that happened. I now am not afraid to ask dumb questions or approach any of my classmates, professors, or preceptors for help. I think this has been a huge effect in my academic performance too because I am able to work hard to understand concepts better. I have now developed so much more confidence in my skills in knowledge that I feel like I am becoming a better athletic training student. This also allows the athletes and my preceptors to trust my skills more because I am not hesitant anymore. For my final semester, I want to be the best athletic training student I can be. I am going to come into the clinic every day looking for ways I can use and apply my skills during my clinical experience time by always having a positive mind. This is very important because after this semester I am on my own (if I pass my BOC), so I need to start doing things on my own without looking for others for help. I am looking forward to proving to myself and others that I am capable of the role as an athletic trainer, and this is my last semester to become solely on my own. I am excited to see what this semester brings to me because this will increase my confidence level. Lastly, I think being with Chaypin will also be a key factor in helping me because she challenges me to perform tasks on my own. I am setting goal this semester to try and perform all clinical experiences on my own and not looking for an outlet no matter how difficult the injury may be. I want to prove to myself that I am a good athletic training student, and I am prepared to go into any future athletic training profession.
My progress this semester has been kind of like a roller coaster. I have definitely had my ups and downs this semester, which I guess every student goes through, but I think I had more than normal this semester. I began this semester off really strong because I was eager to get back into the roll of coming back to school. Then by the end of volleyball season, I noticed myself starting to slack a little bit, which isn’t me at all. I had a rough patch this semester, and I tried really hard not to make it noticeable, but I know there were times it was shown. However, I did overcome this situation, and I believe I have taken a different viewpoint on bring more motivated for class. I think this was a good experience for me because I was able to pull myself out of a slump. This also proved to me that I can do better, and I know how to help myself get out of those bad holes. My preceptor was really helpful this semester. She taught me that no dumb question was ever really dumb, and this was probably the best advice I received all semester because I was never afraid to question a question. This also help me with my biggest weakness, my confidence. The more I was able to open up and ask questions, the more comfortable I felt to do things and ask things on my own. My goal for the spring semester is to come completely out of my shell. I would compare myself to a turtle, right now I am poking my head out of my shell, but still not completely out. For my last semester, my goal is to completely come out and do things on my own because I will need to in the future. My spring semester is the last semester, hopefully, that I am going to be student. So I need to take this last opportunity this semester and become the AT I want to be. In a previous email, I was paired with Joe for my spring semester. I am already preparing myself for the skills I am going to need to use to be with the rugby team. This is going to allow me to have many many evaluations because most every game at least one player is hurt. Which probably isn’t a good thing to look forward too, however, the more injuries I am able to experience the better experience I can have on my own. So my goal in the spring is to get as much experience with as many injuries that I can experience. I am very excited for my last semester as an athletic training student, and I feel like I have learned how to handle different situations and as my last semester I am ready to be the athletic training student I was made to be.
I personally think the progress of my goals started out really good, and then I started to slack. My goals are shaped to help advance my confidence and to get more experience in the clinic. With more experience the more confident I will in myself. At the beginning of the semester, I was performing a lot of evaluations. This was either real evaluations from the men’s soccer team or scenarios that my preceptor would make up to challenge me. There was a lot of extra time spent during practices where I was able to get my goals completed. Because of the environment of the soccer practice field, there was more opportunity to talk about scenarios. So this helped me to continue working every practice on different situations. When I transitioned over to basketball, it was more difficult to get more scenarios because of the practice environment. Women’s basketball practices are inside and are very serious, and this makes it harder to start talking about scenarios. However, there is also more rehabs that are needed to be performed which makes it harder to talk to Melissa on evaluations. So I have been slacking more on performing this goal. I think this goal was very achievable, but it also challenging because I need to find my own time to be able to get this done. I think my goals this year were also realistic because this is a great way for me to have more confidence in myself. I also think this was a good fit for this semester because I need to be preparing to start studying for the BOC. By performing more evaluations, I am able to learn from my mistakes and find areas that I need to start working on. This will also help with where I focus a lot of my studying on to make sure I am prepared for the BOC. I have used these goals for the past two semesters because I want to make sure I am completely prepared when I am certified on my own. There is no better way to get better then practice. Of course, practice makes perfect. So the more opportunities I can get with different scenarios the more confidence I will have in myself. I am going to continue these goals into the next semester, but I am going to challenge myself by performing a real evaluation once a week. However, even if I can not perform this on an athlete, I am going to ask one of the preceptors to be my patient.
The other day in the clinic I was scheduled to help womens basketball, however, none of the girls had shown up for pre practice treatment. So, I went over to Joe because I noticed he had a lot of athletes waiting to be seen by him, so I asked if he needed any help. I was a little nervous to help Joe because he is my preceptor in the spring, and I did not want him to think less of me if I had to perform an evaluation. However, I told myself I just needed to have confidence and perform the evaluation exactly how I know how to do it. Joe asked me to help an athlete who injured their arm. The patient couldn’t remember exactly what he did, however, he just knew the area where the pain was located. After looking at the patient, I narrowed down that the injury occurred on the biceps brachii short head. I also noticed a lot of bruising that occurred on the anterior aspect of the biceps brachii. I proceed to tell Joe, and he told me that is exactly what he was thinking too. He then asked me what kind of treatment I wanted to perform on this injury. Since the injury occurred the day before, I picked to do combo on his shoulder. I decided this would be the best choice for him because I wanted to make sure he began the healing process faster. I put the ultrasound on 20% and the intensity to .8. The intended outcome for this injury was for the ultrasound to used crystal combination to travel through the tissue and be absorbed. I wanted this to be performed over the bruising because there could be a potential contusion over that site, however, this was not the only area that was causing pain to the patient. I wanted to use electrotherapy to involve the whole area since there was more affected. The electrotherapy was used to provide electrical stimulation to the nerves. I did not come to this conclusion completely on my own. I picked to do ultrasound over the bruised area, and then perform electrotherapy after. However, Joe proceed to tell me to think more about the situation and then I realized I could perform a combination treatment on the athlete. This was actually a really great experience because it put me on my toes about thinking more outside the box. It was also really fun to do something different. Usually in the clinic we stick to the traditional ultrasound or electrostimulation, however, this was a very different form of treatment and I am glad I got to do something different. I think this is going to encourage me to do more outside of the box kind of things in order to help treat the athlete.
One of my clinical goals this semester was to perform more evaluations. I picked this goal because I feel like I haven’t performed many real evaluations before because of my schedule. During volleyball season, I am usually scheduled for just clinic times and not many people came in with injuries. However, this did help me with my rehab progression. I haven’t been able to be apart of many practices in the past few semesters because of my schedule. However, this year, I was with the men’s soccer team who practice every evening. Their schedule worked really well with mine this year, and it allowed me to attend at least three practices a week. Due to being able to attend more practices, I was able to start performing more evaluations. Melissa also has challenged me with scenarios when there hasn’t been an injury recently. This has been really helpful because each time I am learning something new. I like being able to see where I went wrong. It has really changed the way I have been performing my evaluations because I used to follow text book, but I have learned I need to follow the patient. I believe this is going to be really helpful for me in the future because it will help me better diagnosis injuries. This also helps me with my confidence because I am able to continue performing evaluations and learn from my mistakes. I also get really hesitant when performing them because I don’t wan to be wrong, so this really helps me to learn that I know what I am talking about. I have had this clinical goal each semester because I feel like this is my weakness. I have not had much experience with real life scenarios, so when I get one I get really nervous. This clinical goal allows me to get out of my comfort shell and start performing evaluations. In less than a year, I should be a certified athletic trainer. I need to have confidence in myself because I know I can perform evaluations. So this goal has kept me on my toes. I continue to either perform real or scenarios from Melissa at least once a week when I come into the clinic. This will help me in the future and also in the present to help me learn from my mistakes and grow as a student. I will use this goal again next semester.
My favorite part of clinical semester this year has been being with the men’s soccer team during their whole season. Throughout this experience I have been able to feel apart of the team, which to means a lot and helped me to feel more comfortable. This also made my experience a lot better because I enjoyed being there with the team. I was able to learn a lot about the athletes which made it a lot easier to come into my clinical experience every day. I knew every injury, rehab, and who was limited and not during practice. I was able to build relationships with the athletes which allowed them to trust me more with their treatment. This was special to me because it made me feel welcomed on the team, and I think this personally helped me to wanting to do more during my clinical time. Before I had days where I would dread doing my clinical because before I didn’t enjoy it. However, being with a team for a whole semester really changed my prospective. I have mentioned this before in my journals, but it really was a waking up moment for me and I am very glad I had this experience. This helped saved me from going off the edge with my major. I had fun when I was clinically experiencing with them because I knew so much about them. This is helping me reach my clinical goal of being more confident in myself. This goal has followed me since my sophomore year. However, I am doing a lot better with trusting myself. Being with a team for the whole semester has allowed me to have the athletes trust me. So I know if I made a mistake they would still allow me to continue treatment on them. This has shown to me that making a mistake is ok, and I don’t have to worry about the athlete thinking I am not smart. So this experience has allowed to me see that I am smart, sometimes. I am able to do the things I am supposed to do. I just needed the confidence boost to help prove to me that I can do these things. So this was a very special moment for me to be with a team for a whole season. It made my clinical experience easier, and it showed me how much I do enjoy this major.
As a senior ATS, I do feel like I have modeled professionalism as a student. Being in this role, I have been able to put aside different worries and thoughts, and be able to fill the role as an ATS. Whenever I walk into the clinic, I do not bring any of problems in there with me. When I come into the clinic, I am able to focus solely on my clinical experience. I have learned how to interact with patients that are either my age or older, and I am able to treat them all the same. I believe this also allows me to be a little bit superior to them because of my role as an ATS. I also feel like I am able to mentor younger ATSs. I believe I have been really open about being helpful to other ATSs. I also have a mentee, who I have helped for the past two years. I do feel like I am a mentor to other students that are not in the AT program. I believe that this major shows that there is a lot of work and commitment that goes into every day life as an ATS. So, I feel like other students see ATSs as very smart students. There are a lot of younger students who have come to me for help in many of their classes. I have also been a peer mentor for two years. I have spent three semesters with three different students. I feel like I have really impacted their commitment and dedication to their school work. I also think that being an athlete has helped molded me as a role model. Being a leader on and off the court has helped me learn how to talk to certain people. I feel like I am a good resource for others to come and talk to. I do believe this major has really shaped me to not only look at the athlete, but to look deeper. There is also more to a person, and this major has taught me how to read each person. I can watch a person walk into the clinic, and I can already tell if something more than just an injury is bothering them. This allows me to open up a relationship with them because it shows me noticing and caring about their problems. Lastly, I believe this major has shown to others that I am a very trustworthy person. Because the athlete can confide me in, I believe this shows to them that I am a good role model to come to when they are struggling with something.
My most challenging class for me this semester is my connections course. I don’t think its very challenging, however, there is a lot of work that is required for this class. I usually have an assignment due every class. Whether this is a reading assignment, writing a paper, or turning in a project. The required assignments take me a while to complete because I am researching my own project. Not only am I researching on my own project, but there is a lot reading required because I also have to learn about Cuba which is what the whole class is about. So there is a lot of work I need to put into this course. However, I have really enjoyed this class because it has made me come out of my comfort zone because I have to present most Fridays. The research project for this course is very interesting because we were allowed to pick whatever type of group/culture that we wanted. I picked a subject I wasn’t familiar with because I wanted to be able to learn more about them. Due to this, I spend a lot of time researching and reading about the subject in order to answer or respond to the following assignment. I struggled at the beginning because I did not realize how much time I would spend completing the assignments. It took me until this week to figure out how I should plan doing the assignments. For this course, I have an assignment due both Monday and Friday of the week. I have learned that the assignments due on Friday take a lot more time to complete than Monday. The Friday assignments are usually projects due that I either have to make a video, poster board, or book review. These assignments are fun, however, they take a lot of time to get completed. I also want them to be good, so I work really hard on them because I have to present them in front of the class. So, I have planned starting the Friday assignment on Monday. This gives me enough time to ask the professor if I have any questions on the project, and it gives me enough time to get the assignment completed. The assignments that are due on Monday I complete over the weekend. I really enjoy this class, but it takes away from allowing me to use that time for other classes for my major.
Throughout my experiences of picking a clinical question, I began by just leaning on others for their ideas. I used to be content with allowing others to guide me in a direction. I did not want to stand up and do something on my own. I wanted others to have an opinion, and I would lean on them with their ideas. Recently, I have grown past this fear. I have now became more vocal for myself. This began last year when I start my own clinical question. Last semester my clinical question came from my own clinical patient because I was curious about the surgery and restrictions they could obtain. Researching on a subject that I was very interested in was a lot easier than doing what my group had selected like I did in the previous years. Since this change I am trying to pursue, I have switched clinical partners. I am very excited for the new change. My clinical partner this semester is Meg Greene. We have been talking for a while about what type of clinical question we wanted to begin research on. It came across our attention that we were both interested in the heart. I was personally interested in the heart because I feel less educated about the subject due to how much it contains. We were also very intrigued by the heart after learning how to read an EKG during preseason and sudden cardiac arrest. So we decided that we wanted to expand our education and research the heart. However, we weren’t sure where we wanted to narrow our question down to. We brought Melissa into our question because we needed help in selecting where we should go. After multiple conversations, the key aspect Meg and I were interested in researching was diagnostic testing. So this began leading up to our clinical question. Our clinical question is “in athletes ages 16-22, what diagnostic testing is more reliable in determining the presence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.” Our clinical committee members include Melissa Davis, Beth Funkhouser, Randy Smith, and Dr. Handy. We picked this committee to have array of education talents. So far we have been doing research in order to narrow our search to define a certain diagnostic test. We are working towards a broad question, and we are hoping to have a certain diagnostic test we can research throughout the semester.
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Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
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