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.
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.
0 Comments
This week has been very hectic for me. I have been having a hard time completing my clinical goals because I am only scheduled during clinic hours. Due to my schedule, I am not able to complete my clinical goals. I wanted to challenge myself this semester, but I am not giving the opportunities because I am in season and do not get to attend practices. My big goal this year was to be able to perform as many evaluations as I could because I only performed one the entire last semester. However, I finally got the chance to perform an evaluation. I clinically experienced the men’s soccer game on Friday, and an athlete had an ankle injury. I was actually nervous when Melissa called me over to perform this evaluation. I wasn’t nervous because I didn’t know how to, I was nervous because I hadn’t performed an onsite injury this semester. I feel the most confident with an ankle injury out of the entire body, but I wanted Melissa to believe I was capable of this evaluation and this made me second guess myself. I didn’t have confidence in my voice when I was talking to the athlete because I kept looking at Melissa to make sure I was right. After I performed a short SOAP note with the athlete, Melissa asked me what my final decision was for the player, and I was gained confidence in myself and told her exactly what I was thinking and she looked at me and said “I agree.” Even though this was an ankle injury, and I should know this injury the best, this lesson helped me gain confidence in myself because I was right. I learned that I shouldn’t second guess myself and be hesitant, I should just go with my gut feeling. This was a great way to start my semester off with getting an evaluation correct on an athlete. I believe this is just the beginning for my experience. I have been working on my confidence so far this semester because I have had the mentality that I can’t be wrong. However, clinically experiencing with Cole I have learned a lot. He quizzes me every time I am in the clinic, and I have been wrong. But when I am wrong, he explains to me the correct answer, and he shows me how or what to do when this happens. Being able to be quizzed has shown me when I am wrong its ok. I believe this will reflect on my clinical evaluations because I get nervous that I am going to be wrong, and this experience has shown me I can not be right 100% of the time. Also this week I only received 3 attempts.
This year I created my clinical goals as a way to challenge myself. So far I have been doing sort of good. I haven’t had much time in the clinic because of my schedule. When I am in the clinic I am performing a lot of rehabs because I can not make a practice. However, I have learned a lot while performing my rehabs, and grown as a student because I have been challenged to do my own rehabs for athletes. At first I was nervous, but I have gained a lot of confidence in myself. Moreover, this past week I was only able to get two attempts and no masteries. This week I am going to double my attempts and get four masteries. I have had an extremely busy week, and I wrote down in my planner a blocked time for me to achieve this goal. I have also been performing a lot of ultrasounds while I am in the clinic. Cole has quizzed me every time I use the modalities which has really helped me. I picked the goal of expand my knowledge in modalities, because I do not feel as comfortable when performing these actions. However, I do feel a slight bit more confidence in myself since I made this goal. Cole has also taught me a new way to approach performing an ultrasound to find the correct settings for the heat, so it has been helpful because I have been able to work with him on getting the right parameters. Next, my other goal from my clinical packet was to go over a body section a week. I was able to achieve this goal! I looked over my notes, and brought my evaluation book on my trip to Greensboro this weekend. I chose to start with the ankle because I haven’t reviewed the anatomy since my anatomy and kinesiology class. It felt really good to review the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones to reassure myself where they are located. This week I want to work on the knee. I am going to break it down every day by anatomy and special tests. I also want to do this throughout the week, so I am not stuck with a lot to do every Sunday night like usual. I am trying to get myself on a good schedule, so I wont be as crammed especially if I am traveling on the weekend.
This past week I have been able to perform two evaluations, which is already more than I have done all semester. Every time I have been clinically experiencing I never had an athlete come in needing an evaluation. Due to my busy schedule last year, I was scheduled to come in the middle or end of practices which doesn’t allow much chance to perform an evaluation on an athlete. However, I wasn’t too upset about not doing an evaluation because I have been very timid about evaluations, so this year I wanted to challenge myself. As stated in my first journal, I made one of my clinical goals to perform at least two evaluations a week because I wanted to make myself branch out of my shell. This week I have been able to perform two evaluations, and I have learned so much from them, especially having Cole as my preceptor because he has taught me different ways to approach injuries. I was very nervous with my first evaluation because it was just my preceptor, the athlete, and me in the room. At first my confidence was down because I was afraid to mess up, however, Cole talked with me throughout my evaluation and reassured me I was on the right track. After the evaluation was over, I was able to talk with Cole about my thought process and he gave me a lot of feedback. Once I perform my second evaluation I was a lot more confident in myself, and I know the athlete felt confident in me because I never looked or ask Cole for help. After performing these two evaluation I have learned that I need to touch up on my anatomy to remember where the origin and insertion of certain muscles are that way if the injury is a muscle I am able to specify/target which muscle it is. Due to this experience, I have gained more confidence in myself and seek more opportunities to perform evaluations. This has not only influenced me to look over anatomy, but to also continue my goal of reviewing each section of the bodies special tests. I believe with these two goals, I will help prepare myself for my exit interview and build my confidence when I am in the clinic. I know I have the ability to perform any evaluation, I just haven’t had much practice which makes me timid, so I believe this goals will push myself to become a confident athletic training student. Lastly, throughout this week I have been able to get 7 attempts and no masteries.
|
Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
|