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.
My clinical packet has taken a lot time. Mainly because I have been pushing off my book for after volleyball season. I have not been sitting down and writing my attempts from my PBLs, which requires me to get more attempts to allow me to try for a mastery. So I have backed myself up some because I did not take the time to write down attempts from the PBL. I have been working really hard these past few weeks at buckling down to get my clinical packet finished. I have been focusing on each section of the body and using the book to make flashcards to begin studying for my exit interview. This allows me to both feel prepared to get masteries and begin a study guide for my exit interview. I set the goal for myself of being able to study one body segment each week. This goal was not achievable this fall semester. During season, I didn’t have enough time to get my homework done for other classes due to the traveling and the time spent with my crazy volleyball schedule. So me trying to push time to study one body segment a week did not happen because to me this was the least of my worries (boy was I wrong). However, out of season, I have completed this goal. I am going to set this goal again for myself in the spring because I will have more time to reach this goal. I believe this goal was also realistic because this is attainable, but I just did not put enough time into my schedule to achieve the goal. However, my other goals I believe were achievable and realistic because I have been able to complete the goals. I will approach my clinical packet differently next semester. I am going to make sure I go over one body segment each week. I believe this goal will be really helpful in allowing me to get my clinical packet finished and feel more prepared for my exit. I believe this system I have started will be the best approach for me. I just need more time to be able to have this completed. I think the spring will be the best opportunity for me because I will not have volleyball all the time.
Lastly, I was able to get 20 attempts this past week and 20 masteries. I was able to complete all of the knee. I am planning on going to the hip and back this upcoming week.
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I feel pretty confident as an ATS, however there are times when I second guess myself. To me, I feel like I have to be perfect, which isn’t possible, I know. However, I feel the need to meet that goal. Which sometimes I am really hard on myself, so I know I am doing things right I just want to be perfect. I believe when I perform evaluations I get sort of hesitant in myself, even though I know I am doing the right thing or at least on the right track. I think the big issue for me is that I know which special test tests for which ligament or muscle, I just don’t know how to perform the test correctly. Its hard for me sometimes because I have little hands and I can’t hold a football players large leg to perform a lachmens tests. So having to adjust to perform these test is what makes me hesitant in myself. I know how to perform them, just performing them correctly is my issue. However, I have been working towards improving my confidence, and I do feel like throughout this semester I have been improving my confidence. I feel the most confident when I am asked to perform any type of modality on an athlete. I believe I have really grasped the concept of it. I believe what will help me get my confidence up to the same point as when I perform evaluations is more practice. I performed my first evaluation in the spring of last semester. So I did not begin in the fall like everyone else. I just never got the opportunity when I was in the clinic. However, I have been using modalities since I first began in the program. If I had more practice performing evaluations on athletes, I believe my confidence would go up. This semester I have performed more evaluations then I have ever done in the past, so I know I am improving with my confidence a little at a time. I have also been learning a lot throughout my evaluations because of the more practice I do. This week I performed more evaluations than I have the entire semester. I was working on my book and practiced going through evaluations to get masteries. I was given scenarios and had to work my way through an evaluation to diagnosis my patients. This week I received around 30 attempts. I wrote down all my attempts because there were times I was trying for a mastery, but it was not completely correct. So I recorded all my attempts for practice. I also receive 30 masteries this week. This is a really good feeling to begin having a ton of masteries written in my book at one time.
My future professional goals are to attend Emory’s graduate program and become a PA. Sometimes I feel really hesitant saying “I want to become a PA,” because that’s a really high goal I am setting for myself. So for now, this is my highest goal I am setting for myself and hopefully I can achieve it. Since I have been an undergraduate student I have been trying to find what I love best. First I have found that I love to help others. I enjoy listening to their problems and trying to find a solution for them. Second, I love learning about the body. It’s the so interesting to me. There are many options I can pick with what I enjoy doing, however, I am more complicated than that. I hate being told what to do (shocker I know). I enjoy being in charge, yet, I still like having someone tell me I am doing something right (even though most of the time I know I am, its just the assurance). So, I have decided that becoming a PA is the best route for me. I will be able to have my own control over things, but I will also be under a physician who can reassure me when I need it. I have been researching about PA’s for about 2 years now. Of course mainly about different PA schools around Emory. I have planned out my schedule for the next three semesters to allow me to have all the classes I need to apply to all the PA schools in this area. I have talked to many professors about which classes I should take, and I have also talked to a PA. He has influenced me to follow my goal to become a PA, but also encouraged me to take an EMT class and begin riding along with the ambulance. I am trying to take an EMT class in the spring, and Melissa has been really helpful in putting me in the right direction to take this class. I have also talked to a student at Emory’s graduate school and asked her a lot of questions about the program. After talking with her, I got a lot of butterflies because of how excited I am to start. I have spent a lot of time researching about Emory’s graduate program, and I need to research more about other schools as a fall back plan if I do not get in. This week I was a complete slacker and did not get any masteries or attempts. I have schedule two meetings with preceptors to get more attempts and masteries to make up for this past week!
This semester I created my clinical goals to challenge myself. I really wanted to have more confidence in myself, and I know the only way to get this goal is practice. There has been one particular goal that has really stuck out to me this semester, and I have really been focusing hard to achieve this goal. The goal consists of performing two evaluations every two weeks. I believe I have done a really good job at maintaining this goal (surprisingly). However, there are times I am in the clinic and no one comes in for an evaluation, yet I have still been able to perform one every two weeks. I have learned a lot from performing evaluations because I am able to learn from mistakes. Being with the football team, I see a lot of lower leg injuries. So I have not performed many upper body evaluations. Being with the football team, I believe I have mastered hip and knee injuries. I also enjoy performing evaluations because to me its like a puzzle. Its fun for me to figure out what is wrong with an athlete, and be able to diagnose them with the correct injury. This has boosted my confidence a lot. Now I am not as nervous when I am asked to perform an evaluation on an athlete. In my opinion, I believe I have worked really hard to master this goal. However, for my other goals, I have been slacking off a lot. I challenged myself at the beginning of the semester to review each body segment injuries and modalities. I have only completed this goal a few weeks. Since volleyball season has ended, I do have a lot more time. I have already planned in my schedule time to review for both of these. I am trying to make more time to review and get ahead in classes.
Reflecting on my masteries and attempts I have received this week include four attempts and one mastery. This week I was only in the clinic for two hours and traveled with the football team to The Apprentice School, so it wasn’t easy for me to get many attempts. I thought I would have more attempts during the game, however, it was an easy game. There were no injuries during the game, so I was not able to get any attempts. I believe my favorite part of clinical experience so far is being able to perform evaluations on athlete. Since I am with football this semester, there is a ton of injuries. I used to be very hesitant with injuries, and now I want to perform every evaluation I can. From the beginning of the year to now, I have grown a lot as an athletic training student. I was nervous to make mistakes, but now I am not afraid to speak what I think for certain injuries. Cole has been very helpful in directing me into the right direction when performing evaluation. So every evaluation I perform, I can feel my confidence boost. Its also really exciting when you perform an evaluation, and your preceptor agrees with your diagnosis. I believe as the semester continues, I am not going to be nervous when performing my exit interview. This semester has been preparing me a lot towards my exit interview. This is special to me because I used to be very conserved when performing evaluations. Now, when an athlete walks in and needs an evaluation I jump at the opportunity. I believe the more evaluations I perform, the more I learn how to perfect them. I have been clinical experiencing a lot during clinic times which allows me to have a lot of opportunities for evaluations. I have also been performing a lot of rehabs. I used to hate rehabs and everything to do with physical therapy, but this semester it has grown slightly on me. I’m not sure if this because I have performed so many and it seems to flow easier, or if I enjoy doing it. But I don’t think PT would be something I would want to pursue in the future. However, performing evaluations is what I want to do in the future, which is why I think I love doing evaluations so much. I want to become an orthopedic PA, which I would perform many special tests. So this is another reason why this has been my favorite part of my clinical experience so far. I also been slacking a lot on getting my clinical packet finished. I have been working on it, however, not as often as I wished I could have been. I have been focusing a lot of my time trying to get ahead in classes, which has been helping me a lot. My plan is to work over thanksgiving break to know all my injuries and can come back and get masteries. This week I was able to get 2 attempts.
Coming to the end of my junior year, I have had a lot of ups and downs. I came into the semester with a positive attitude and was very excited to begin a new year. At the beginning of the year, I constantly talked with the sophomores/freshmen asking if they needed any help or assistance with their schoolwork. I have also tried to be a mentor to them while in the clinic. I know my sophomore year I was hesitant to help athletes because I didn’t know a lot at the beginning, so I have been trying to help them feel more confident while they are in the clinic. My biggest advice that I have shared with them is to try to get ahead in every class. This advice isn’t as easy as it sounds. I am still trying my best to use this advice. However, I have realized by getting ahead in classes you are able to understand the lectures easier and can begin asking questions on the things you are still confused on earlier. I shared this advice with them because getting ahead in classes helps a lot when tests come along. This way one wont need to cram for the test the night before, and this not only helps with academics but with one’s stress level. I know for me personally I stress about a test that is two weeks away. However, when I started getting ahead in my classes I was able to have two sets of notes (one from reading on my own & the lectures in class). From my point of view, I believe this is the best advice for any student who is struggling in their classes. Upperclassmen have also been very helpful to me. I am able to go to them for advice or questions when I need assistance. I believe the best word to describe the start of the program with the upperclassmen is the word encouragement. This semester is the first semester I have taken a class with the upperclassmen. This class is just as hard to them as it is for me, which shows there isn’t a difference between my class and theirs. They have always been encouraging since the beginning of the year by influencing me to begin my clinical packet early and studying for classes. I enjoy being in this program because the upperclassmen have been very helpful to me when I am struggling in classes or life in general. Its nice to hear about their stories and how they figured out what to do in situations.
This semester I didn’t think I would have much trouble with my classes except for Chemistry. My last chemistry class was my junior year of high school. So I knew I was going to have to study extra for this class. However, I do not think this is the most challenging class I am taking this semester. For me personally, I believe my Human Anatomy class is the hardest. It doesn’t seem like this class would be challenging, but for some reason I can not grasp the material well. I know a lot of the material he teaches in class, but I cannot do well on the tests. I think one part of this reason is because I am very intimidated by Dr. Graham. He teaches the PA students at Emory’s Graduate school, which is where I want to go. So I feel a lot of pressure in his class to make myself do well because I want to be able to open up to him and let him know I am very interested in Emory’s PA program. However, I have not felt like I have been doing good enough in his class to be able to do that, so I am trying to push myself to get better grades so I can open up to him. I think that’s a main reason I find this class challenging because I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to do so well in that class that I begin to second guess myself. Since our first test, I have changed how I have been studying. I have been reading the chapter before he goes over it in class which has been really helpful. I have also begun to do this in all of my classes. I have been finding it hard to find time to do this in all classes, but it has been so much helpful to know the material before the lecture. I think this is a good way to change the way I study. I have been focusing a lot of my time on Human Anatomy. I have a test coming up this Tuesday, so I have been studying for this test for the past two weeks. So hopefully I have figured out a way to increase my grade in this class. This week I was able to get 3 attempts. I have been slacking a lot in clinical book, so I am trying to plan time this week where I can go into the clinic and get masteries.
My clinical question this year is “Does consistent lack of sleep affect sports performance in collegiate athletes.” My clinical committee consists of Am as my group partner, Melissa Davis as my AT advisor, Brianne Kilbourne as my Faculty Advisor, and Mike Caro as my content expert. Am and I decided to research this clinical topic because as athletes we feel we do not get enough sleep. Of course there is multiple variables that take into account when complaining of not having enough sleep. This question is more personal to us in order to find the answers to how to better ourselves as athletes. There is also a player on our team who does not get enough sleep each week, and we wanted to know if this affects her performance. However, this question is a lot bigger than just personal use. We are very curious to research the different amounts of sleep needed in order to have the highest performance rate. Being a part of the SAAC committee, I have been able to hear a lot of complaints from the athletes. A big complaint involves getting back from an away game around midnight and having to go to classes or practice early in the morning. This research would be good information to relay back to the SAAC department to show what the studies have proven about collegiate athletes, and their performance based on their sleep. Lastly, this research will allow me to be able to help other athletes in balancing their time to either get more sleep or prioritize when they have multiple games during that week. So far we have been able to find three articles that will be really beneficial to our question. Coach Caro has read many studies on this case and is eager to work with Am and I on finding the best articles for our clinical question. This week I didn’t have much time to get many masteries or attempts because it was fall break. However, since it was fall break I was able to attend a practice (which I haven’t done in a long time). It felt really good being back in the clinic for pre practice, because I was able to do a lot more things like taping, bracing, and ultrasound. I was able to get three more attempts this week. I know this is not my ideal goal, but I am planning time in this upcoming week to meet my goals.
I do believe what I have been learning in the classroom has paralleled to my clinical experience this semester. My clinical class this semester has brought up a lot of topics on the things I have seen when I am clinically experiencing in the field house. Throughout my clinical class this semester, we have learned about different injuries from PBLs. Since I do not spend a lot of time with the football team when they practice, I get to see a lot more injuries/rehab because I am scheduled for clinic times. Recently, I was able to observe/assist Cole with a back injury. The athlete had already had an evaluation, so it was a following rehab that I assisted Cole with. Cole walked me through what happened to the athlete and the steps taken to help him recover. I was able to talk with Cole about different back injuries as in: lordosis, kyphosis, swayback, and forward head posture. We were able to assess that the athlete had a significant forward head posture, and we immediately started rehab to decrease this action. It was interesting to bring this situation to Cole because he was impressed I knew these terms. So I felt like I gained some brownie points from this experience because it helped my confidence. Another class that has been really helpful for me is my Human Anatomy class. Throughout this class we have gone over the integumentary system and the bones. Even though I knew a lot about this already, I was able to review these subjects which has been very helpful. Cole has taught me that knowing anatomy helps a lot with an evaluation. So this class has been really helpful because it has refreshed my memory. For example, an athlete came in with a hand injury and Cole asked me to perform an evaluation. I was able to tell Cole which carpal bone I thought was injured because I had just recently gone over the anatomy of the hand in my class. This is just a few examples of how my classes have been tying into my clinical experience. It has been really helpful this semester, even if some things are a review. This week I was able to record 1 mastery and 7 attempts. However, I did not meet my goal for this week. I was able to clinically experience the football game, which allowed me to get most of my attempts for this week. This semester I have not performed a lot of evaluations yet, however, I have performed evaluations on PBL’s. One PBL in particular that stuck out to me was the high jumper injury. Every year, our preceptors have emphasized how important it is to know how to properly c-spine. However, I feel confident to c-spine an athlete because of all the practice I have done throughout each semester, one PBL through me for a loop. The PBL was specifically about an athlete who would need to be c-spinned. Although, the tricky part of this c-spine was the athlete was on a foam pad. I never thought about the actions that would need to be taken with an athlete not on a firm surface. I honestly never thought of a situation where the athlete wouldn’t be on a firm surface. This PBL has broaden my idea of c-spinning. In order to allow the athlete the safest way to be put on a spine board, one must take into consideration all the surroundings. This scenario has taught me a huge lesson about different settings an athlete may be in. Once we went over this in class, I was able to figure out different ways to properly c-spine the athlete. This will definitely help in the future because now I know multiple options I can perform if someone if not on a firm surface. It was also very important because I realized there are so many different scenarios that can happen to an athlete, and I need to be able to have an open mind about how to help them. Its not always a certain technique. If I want to become an athletic trainer, I need to be able to understand that some situations are not textbook answers. I have to be able to find the safest option for the injury. This scenario will influence my clinical decision making because I am not going to worry on being 100% correct. Sometimes I get in my own head about knowing the correct textbook answer, when in reality the textbook doesn’t have the answer to everything. I need to be confident in my abilities to be able to figure out the best ideal situation for the athlete. PBL’s have been really helpful to me lately because they allow me to work my way through the scenario on my own. I am able to understand what I should perform first, and what I shouldn’t perform at all.
Lastly, this week I was able to get 5 more attempts and 1 masteries. This is not in my goal range, but a lot of my clinical experience time was performing/initiating rehabs. |
Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
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