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 final preseason experience has been a really great experience. All summer I was dreading coming back and spending a week refreshing during preseason. Because who am I kidding, preseason or summer break? Yes I would pick summer break. However, this preseason, was a lot different. This was most definitely my best preseason experience because of all the extra things we got to do. I enjoyed being able to run multiple scenarios, both for football and outside the depot, for a c-spine injury. I feel really confident on knowing how to c-spine someone, however, the more practice the better. My favorite part of this preseason was being able to go to the school of health sciences. That whole day reassured me that I was in the correct major for myself. It was an awesome experience to get to learn how to suture, put in an IV, and learn how to start an EKG. This by far has been the best experience I have had as an athletic training student. When I compare this to the previous years, I would say that this years preseason I was a lot more confident in myself. When I began the past two preseason, I would always start off nervous and not make myself stand out as much. However, this preseason I took initiative on everything. This also ties into how I feel different as an ATS. I am a lot more confident in myself. Of course, I have a lot of room to grow, but this preseason I have really stepped up a lot. I don't know if its because I am a senior and I need to do it, or because there isn't many of us so I really don’t have an option. I am usually by myself with my preceptor which means if an injury evaluation happens I am the one to do it. I really enjoy being with the men's soccer team for many reasons… 1 because they are all really nice and funny, which makes coming to practices or treatments better. 2 because they are a challenging group of boys, I have never enjoyed instructing rehab, however, after working with several kids on the soccer team I have really enjoyed seeing them improve. I have actually set one of my goals to work on my rehabilitation skills because I knew that was a weakness for me last semester, and I really want to learn more about progression and exercises. 3 because Melissa has also challenged me by putting me in situations where I am uncomfortable with myself (as in performing an eval or treatment on an athlete) making me a whole lot more confident in myself already. I believe Melissa has really helped throughout this preseason to break me from second guessing and waiting for her to come help me. Of course, I still am a little hesitant with myself, but she continues to put me on the spot in front of the athlete and I do not want to be wrong (because I feel like the athlete will feel like I am not as smart as I) so this makes me be confident when I answer and I am usually right or on the right path when this happens. I have been working and focusing a lot towards being confident in myself, so I believe this is the biggest hindrance that I obtain. Lastly, my growth as an AT student has shown to other athletes that I typically know what I am doing. I have had a lot of athletes come ask me to help them or what they should do with certain problems because I feel like they trust me as a senior athletic training student. I also believe that I have improved a lot to my preceptors because they give me opportunities to come up with the treatment or exercises on my own (of course getting them approved first by my preceptor). For example, after spending a week with Melissa during preseason and experiencing their injuries, she would ask me to tell her what I thought they should do when they came in for morning treatment. I really enjoy being with one preceptor because I am able to be with the same team, so when someone gets hurt or injured I am there throughout the whole experience. I am very excited for this semester, and I am ready for all the challenging athletes that want to come my way!
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Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
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