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. |
Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
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