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 is going to be a very different journal for me. I am going to write about an evaluation experience that actually happened today. I have recently completed two evaluations of the ankle, and for some reason I just forgot everything. I don’t know if I was just thinking that it was the ankle and the evaluation would be easy, however, I really actually struggled through the evaluation. This was able to open my eyes to how I am supposed to perform an evaluation. I would skip steps throughout my evaluation process just trying to go straight to special tests because I thought that’s the only way to diagnosis an injury. However, that is not the case, and I am really glad I went through this mistake. Today, I was presented a patient who was having back pain. I first thought to myself, man this is going to be hard, but actually I was able to simplify the situation and come out on top. I used my previous experiences to use the history questions as my most important part of my evaluation. This allowed me to already start brainstorming about what injuries this could be. After listening to the history questions, I then took the questions and applied them to my palpation process. The patient’s symptoms presented a burning pain shooting up the back and pain along the erector spinae. After, I moved to range of motion I learned the patient could not perform trunk flexion, extension, or rotation. I used this information to think about the injuries that can affect these motions. In the back of my mind I was thinking this could have something to do with the discs. However, I did not want to think this was the only injury it could be. I wanted to keep an open mind throughout my evaluation process because I want to make sure I have ruled as much out as I can to be confident on my diagnosis. After finishing my evaluation, I came to the conclusion that there could potentially be a herniated disc. However, the patient felt very tight. So, Melissa and I decided that we were going to treat the symptoms, and reevaluate the patient in a couple of days. This experience has really spoke volumes to me. I have realized that just following an evaluation sheet is not the way to go. I need to start expanding my evaluations skills to not perform like a book.
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At this moment, my plans after graduation are to attend graduate school. I really want to go to PA school at Emory & Henry School of Health Sciences in Marion. However, I will submit more applications to other graduate schools. I am currently on the track to having all my prerequisites for graduate school completed and will have all of my clinical hours for the requirements. I feel like I am set with all my requirements for this to happen. Its exciting that I took the path of an athletic training student because I will be able to graduate with over 900 clinical hours. This will also give me a step ahead of others because they will have to shadow while I got experience. I have two things left I need to complete: my GRE and my graduate applications. I am currently studying every Sunday for my GRE. I have actually been studying a lot more this semester than I plan for myself every week. I do not have as many hard classes this semester (which are usually always AT classes), so I am able to use that time to be able to start preparing for my GRE. I know there is going to be a huge transition between undergraduate and graduate school. I am trying to make sure I have my grades keep up, and I am spending my time making sure all my assignments have been turned in or getting them done early. I think the biggest to key to wanting to become a physician’s assistant was when I tore my ACL. My PA did everything for me. Of course during surgery, I was not awake, and I know my surgeon did most of the repair. However, to my eyes, my PA did everything for me. It was so awesome to me to see how much of a role he has played for me. I have always wanted to be able to help people. I love injuries (which probably isn’t ok), but I really want to be in surgery. The day Dr. Handy came to the School of Health Sciences and showed how to suture was probably one of my favorite days. I had a blast. I knew I wanted to work in hospital, and I wanted to be able to help people. I think this position is best for me because I always look to someone for reassurance even when I know I am doing things right. This allows me to continue this awful habit by having a physician watching over me.
One goal I picked this semester was to perform an actual or scenario evaluation once a week. I picked this because the more evaluations I perform the better I will be at them (practice makes perfect). I did not get much experience last year performing evaluation because the fall semester I spent a lot of time in the clinic in the mornings. During the spring semester I did not preform an evaluation when I was with Bre. However, I did see an elbow dislocation so that was definitely worth it. Bre did quiz Colin and I randomly on evaluation scenarios making sure we were prepared for anything to happen at any high school event. I also picked this because I lack confidence in myself, and the more evaluations I perform and get correct the more my confidence will go up. I wanted to make confidence be one goal by its self because I think this is my biggest weakness I lack in myself, however, I think combining this with evaluations will really enhance my skills. Last week I was faced with a tricky evaluation. Melissa told me I was going to do an evaluation on an ankle. I was pretty excited because ankles are probably the easiest evaluation I have performed before. However, this evaluation was not easy at all. I went through my evaluation and kind of got to a point where I didn’t know what else I needed to do, so then I reached out to Melissa for help. She guided me along to perform some manual muscle testing to rule out some type of injury to the muscle. She would suggest a muscle or muscle group and I would perform the MMT. I got nervous at first because I couldn’t remember all the muscles in the foot, but once Melissa would mention the name I knew exactly how to MMT that muscle or muscle group. After doing multiple tests, we were able to pin point where the exact pain was on her ankle. Once she came into the clinic at the very beginning and I performed the evaluation her pain was along the lateral aspect around her lateral malleolus. However, throughout the middle of the evaluation her most tender spot was on the fifth metatarsal. At this point we checked to rule out a fracture, and all three tests of tuning fork, ultrasound, and compression were positive. I believe this goal is going to help me improve my confidence and skills because I will be performing them weekly. This also keeps me on my toes making sure I am prepared for whatever type of scenario or injury that can occur each week.
I believe I have more strengths than I do weakness, so I am going to start with my weaknesses. For my personally I think my biggest weakness is the lack of confidence I have in myself. I don’t know why I struggle to just go with my gut, but I second guess myself all the time. I am also afraid to answer things because I don’t want to be wrong. I don’t know why I am afraid to be wrong, but I just can not get over it. I have actually been working a lot towards this by just saying what comes to my brain no matter the outcome. I think for me personally; I don’t want to be wrong with what I am doing because it frustrates me. Of course, I am just a student, but I have been doing this for three years and I should be getting better every time. I think I overthink the situation and just get a little stressed out. I think I could improve my weaknesses by performing more evaluations. The more experience the the better I will be. I have actually been working towards this because it is one of my goals for this semester. My preceptor is going to challenge me once a week with either a real evaluation or a scenario. I also think I can increase my weaknesses by answering more questions in class or during clinic hours to prove to myself I am capable of knowing the correct answer. For my strengths, I believe I am very determined to get anything I am challenged with completed. Whether this be with an evaluation, directing rehab exercises, or performing any type of treatment. I am very hardworking at getting any task completed. I am also very good with communication to others. This can be when someone is hurt or when I am introduced to a new team. Communication is key, and this allows the athlete to build trust with me and not be afraid to let me do their treatments or rehabs. I try to talk to every athlete I come in contact with to build a relationship with them. I want them to be able to come to me for any questions, or help they need while I am with them during practice, treatment, or games. By being with one team for a whole semester is really helpful with this because I am able to follow them throughout their many practices and games. This allows them to get to know me, and they can get used to me as a student. I will enhance my strengths by continuing to reach out to all athletes, and I will continue to work hard throughout any challenges I come into contact with.
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!
This semester has been one of my favorite semesters since I have been in college. My big concern this semester has been my chemistry class, which is really nice because its not an athletic training class. Right now my only other AT class is gen med, and its really nice to not have many classes to be stressing about. I have had a lot more time to study for my exit since I do not have as many challenging classes. However, my schedule is still very hard, but I could say this semester has been my favorite so far I have also had more time to get my clinical hours in. I really enjoyed being offsite with Bre because I got to experience so many different injuries. It was such a good experience to be in a different environment and with younger athletes. I still need to continue working on reviewing for my exit. I am very, very nervous for this upcoming Saturday. I think I get so nervous that I stress myself way too much which is not ok. I know that I know the material, I just get so nervous I forget to talk normal and just rush through my interview. I am really going to focus on expressing my knowledge throughout this exit because I have been working really hard since the beginning of the semester. I have been reviewing notecards since February. This has been a goal of mine to review as much as I can before I take my exit. I have been separating different body sections in order to allow for less things to review and more time to focus on the actual injury. I also need to start preparing myself to take my GRE and BOC. I am planning on taking my GRE over the summer or early august, so I can apply early to as many school that I am able to. I also just want to get this test out of the way because I need to focus on my senior year. Lastly, I need to start preparing to take my BOC. I know I have test anxiety, so the more practice tests I can take the more confident I will feel in myself when I take the test. I want to continue reviewing my notes since my spring semester of my freshmen year. I feel like sometimes I just memorize terms, and I don’t actually take the time to understand the concept.
My greatest strengths and weaknesses seem to keep changing each semester since I have been in the program. I believe my biggest weaknesses are modalities and clinical evaluations. I have struggled with modalities since sophomore year. I made a goal in my clinical book for the past year now to become more confident when using modalities. I do feel like I have become more familiar with the concept, but there are times where I am unsure which modality is best for the injury. I have been reviewing my modalities book every Sunday to try and get more confident with the subject. My second weakness is performing a full evaluation. My brain sometimes feels swimming and I begin to mix up my words when I speak. I know what I am talking about, but I have trouble putting it all together. I think this really effects me in my exits because I want to say the most important part of an evaluation, but my brain jumps ahead and wants me to say the most important part of this injury. I was able to improve when I retook my exit because I took my time, and I was able to begin by expressing the history and ending with functional testing. I created flash cards over winter break, and I have been reviewing those once a week. I believe I have gotten better with my evaluation skills, however, I just need to reassure myself to take my time. My greatest strengths include being dedicated and wound care (which I just recently found out about). Being in the program has taught me that I am going to be wrong a lot and its ok. I used to be a perfectionist. Now, I like being wrong because it’s a learning experience to me. Its allowed me to become dedicated because even though I am wrong, I still want to keep trying until I get it right. I consistently reread my notes from classes, and I will keep trying until I get the correct answer. If there isn’t something I know or can do, I will go to the lab and keep trying until I can do it right. Lastly, I just figured out today wound care if one of my strengths. How ironic (because my mom is a wound care nurse)?! Now that I look back over the past semester, I can say I am very confident when dealing with wounds. My favorite sport I have clinical experienced was wrestling because of how much blood I got to work with.
I was able to get 10 attempts and masteries with Bre this week! Throughout this past week I was responsible for making a clinical decision on an athlete with low back pain. The athlete had been seeing Bre previously with this pain while she was cheerleading in the fall, but had not been seen since then. So I had heard about her tight back muscles from Bre before. I first began by evaluating the athlete. My history include that the athlete is currently playing volleyball, and she is practicing 4 days a week. She is a libero, and reports most of her back pain is when she is bending over waiting for a serve or a pass, but no pain when actually passing the ball. She also has muscle spasms randomly in her back. However, she reports no radicular pain. Throughout my evaluation, I first was able to help correct her posture. She had a forward shoulder posture and slumped her back. I explain to her correct posture, which could help relieve some of her pain. Throughout my palpation process, I felt that her paraspinals were very tight bilaterally. Next, she had full lumbar ROM. There was no positive special test. Bre asked me what type of treatment I wanted to do for the athlete, and I chose to perform pre-mod stimulation on her back. I chose this because I wanted to target the pain. I did 0-150 beats frequency for 7 minutes (because that was how long we could be in the clinic before we needed to leave to be present for the soccer game). This experience was really helpful to me because it was in front of an athlete I knew well in high school, so I didn’t want to sound like I had no idea what I was doing. I was also nervous because I wanted to prove to Bre my knowledge. I knew exactly which modality I wanted to use, however, I just needed to get over my stage fright. This did help towards my clinical goal because I was able to run through the back muscles/anatomy, special tests, and performing an evaluation which is one of my goals in my book! Its always helpful to have different kinds of evaluations to perform because I know the more I do the more I learn. Lastly, I was able to get 10 masteries this week.
I recently experience something I never thought I would experience as an athletic training student, I splinted a dislocated elbow. After saying “I splinted a dislocated elbow,” it sounds really cool, however, I was actually terrified when I did it. Here is how it happened. I was at John Battle for my offsite clinical rotation watching a boys jv basketball game. All of a sudden a young boy fell from an unexpected screen from the opposing team and landed on an outstretched arm. This event occurred on the other side of the court, so it was hard for Bre and I to see his elbow was dislocated. We waited until we noticed the boy was not getting up, and then Bre and I ran over to the other side of the court to assist the player. The assistant and head coach were already over there once we got there, so again we had no idea how hurt the boy was. The head coach, who is a surgeon, was able to reduce the elbow to relieve some of the pain for the boy. Bre was able to take control and help support the elbow in place while I went to get a sam’s splint. We immediately took him over to the side, and I had the sam splint ready to give to Bre to put on the boys elbow. However, Bre looked at me and said “be assertive,” so I quickly applied the splint to the boys elbow while Bre slowly took her hands away from supporting the elbow. I was very nervous once she said that, but it kind of hit me like a train and gave me a lot of courage to put the splint on the boys arm just how I had been taught in my Emergency Care class. I did not want the boy to see I was hesitant in my skills, so I quickly straighten up from being shocked to applying the splint exactly how I was taught. I knew how to splint an elbow; I had just never performed this action before in a real life setting, so I was very frazzled after the event. After I put the splint on, I began thinking of different ways I could have approached my splint job. I was worried I did not do it perfectly. I was able to talk to Bre after, and she told me how I applied the splint was the exact way she would have done it also. I am glad I got this experience because I was able to get my first real injury over with, and now I feel confident to splint any injury that I come into contact with especially an elbow. I believe this incident helped me towards my clinical goal because, even though I am a perfectionist, I was able to gain confidence in myself and splint the elbow. I now feel way more confident in splinting any type of injury because this event proved to me I am capable of splinting. This event did show to me that no matter the situation, I do know what I am doing I just need to have confidence in myself. Who cares if its not perfect because no one is perfect. However, the more experience I have the better I will be for the next traumatic event. Lastly, I was able to get 3 attempts this week.
My goals for my clinical packet are quiet personal to me. I try to challenge myself a lot, and I get frustrated if I don’t complete the challenge (which is why I pick challenging goals). I am way too competitive even with myself sometimes. One of my favorite goals, which I have used for the past two semesters, is to review each body section a week. The aim for this goal was to make myself have a week dedicated to one body segment and focus on the bony landmark, soft tissue structure, and special tests. In the fall, I was able to review the entire body twice. However, I realized last semester I was missing a little piece that would have helped for my exit interview. I didn’t think about looking at certain injuries and the mechanism at which they occurred. I think this really affected me on my exit last semester. When I was reviewing I never compared different types of injuries or how to differentiate different types of injuries. So over Christmas break, I made flash cards that included step by step process for that certain injury. I think this was a big key in helping me pass my exit over break. I have been reviewing these flash cards along with the bony landmark, soft tissue structure, and special tests. I believe this process is a great way to review all around. I am able to feel more confident in the clinic when performing evaluations, and I am able to start reviewing for my exit interview at the end of the semester. This semester I have slacked a little on this goal. I have been focusing a lot of time on chemistry because I have a test once a week, however, I am still able to review my flash cards and special tests. I think one weakness I have from this goal is I can not perform an evaluation on a person. I am not preforming the special tests on someone and practicing palpating the persons bony and soft tissue landmarks. Although I do have a plan! I know when I am able to start hardcore studying for the exit, I will have other athletic training students to practice going through an evaluation. So I am not fully nervous for the exit since I have been preparing since the first week of school, however, I still have a lot of work to do to make sure I am ready for the interview. I love this goal because its very challenging. I try to take 15 minutes out of each day to sit down and review, but when I don’t have enough time that day, I review every Sunday. I have really challenged myself this semester by making sure each week I sit down and just review as much as I can. Just having a refresher every week is very helpful when I am performing evaluations in the clinic. Lastly, I did not get any attempts of masteries this week because it was spring break!
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Reflective JournalsThese journal entries express my experience as an athletic training student Archives
April 2019
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