4/22/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #7I think being a good consumer of the literature involves understanding when to put what was learned into clinical practice and when not to. Sometimes the study might show phenomenal results, but it can’t be applicable to your patients. Trying to use that literature in your clinical practice would then be a waste of time. Additionally, it is important to understand when the article you read was actually a good article. In research and design, we have learned a lot about internal validity. That examines how well the study shows a causal relationships within itself. If the threats to internal validity are too great, one can not form an accurate causal relationship. It is also important to note when the literature is being biased. It is necessary to examine where the literature is being produced from. If it is an article about the benefits of Gatorade that was produced by the Gatorade company, then it is fair to say that the information in that article is biased and should be taken with a grain of salt. On the other hand, if a study is conducted by a third party and has sufficient internal validity and external validity (generalizability), then it may be worth taking the time to try to implement into clinical practice.
I feel like clinicians should use and engage in research because it helps to continue one’s education. Continuing education requirements are just not enough in the minimum to stay up to date on current research and changes in protocol. If I had not been in classes, I would have never known about the change in the normal blood pressure reading from 120/80 to 115/75. I also think it’s important to stay involved in the literature because we will inevitably run into patients that are not responding to traditional treatments and rehabs. It is important that we continue to grow in the number of tricks we have up our sleeves to be able to accommodate all the different types of patients that we will come in contact with. Lastly, I feel that a good clinician will not have to spend much time in the literature, but a great clinician will always continue to learn and grow. I never want to just be mediocre at what I do, but I want to be the best I can be at whatever I am doing. Staying up to date on the news and current literature will help me to accomplish that.
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I have seen some major shifts in who I am as a person since entering into college. Although all the changes put together make me who I am, I’m thankful they go much deeper than the change from physical therapy to physician assistant. The first thing that comes to mind is how I have a deeper understanding of what is really important. As a freshman, everything school related was of utmost importance - it was more important than sleep, than making friends and creating relationships, than my family, than continuing things I was passionate about. I operated like this for years, and I am really unsure of how I didn’t burn out sooner. Midway through my first semester of junior year, I really began to understand what was really important. The relationships I had created needed more attention, my family was sacrificing for me and they deserved more of my devotion, the church was willing to be there for me and help me grow and it was demanding my time (demanding in a good way). All of these important pieces had been neglected, and it made my time at school honestly quite miserable. I had no balance. However, when I began putting my priorities in line, while still being a good steward of the educational opportunities that had been given to me, that is when I started to experience the fullness of life. I am not going to look back on this experience and remember that assignment I worked so hard on, but I am going to remember my experiences I had, the people I met, and the life lessons I learned while I was here.
Perhaps the most important change occurred in my faith. I knew I had all these passions before really knowing Christ, but I had no idea what to do with them. When I truly began putting Jesus at the center of my life, all those passions began to make sense. He gave me a heart to help people, and that was why I wanted to go into the medical field. Now it isn’t just me striving for a degree (which is really unsatisfying and unfulfilling for me), but it’s me pursuing Kingdom work to honor Jesus. It is totally okay for me to be a doctor and a missionary, I do not have to choose. I knew I was at Emory to show people Jesus, but I didn’t know how to do that. That’s when I realized that I have a heart for college aged women who feel like they don’t have a place. This is where I was able to put my passions into action by putting time into Women’s Bible Study on campus to begin actually relating with women who felt that way. Jesus has pruned me since my being at college to understand that if He is not at the center of my life, I will never be satisfied. I don’t need a big degree, lots of money, or the reputation of success to be fulfilled, all I have to do is follow Him and carry my cross. At the feet of Jesus is where I find purpose. 4/16/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #14This past week I was helping Hannah cover a baseball practice. The athletes were playing a curve ball scrimmage in practice, and everything was going very smoothly. A player then hit a ground ball that shot towards second base, and the shortstop went to get the ball when it popped off the ground, went over his glove and hit him in the face. He immediate hit the ground and stayed there. At first, I thought he was just playing around because it didn’t look like he actually got hit by the ball, but it appeared as if he had been able to dodge. After a few seconds of him not getting up, we ran out onto the field and he would not raise his head. At this point his legs were moving around like he was in pain, but he never lifted his head. We asked if he could look up at us, and when he did we saw a bloody mouth and an already very swollen upper lip. We were able to get him up and over to the dugout where he washed his mouth out with a cup of water. When he was cleaned up, we were able to see that there were two fairly deep cuts under his upper lip and another cut on his bottom lip. I grabbed a nose plug that he could put inside his lip to help stop the bleeding and made him an ice bag. As I was getting him ice, I asked Hannah if we should run him through a concussion assessment, and she instructed me to wait a while before doing so. I didn’t really know why I felt that we should perform the assessment, but my intuition said that it was a good idea. Within just a few minutes, he was telling us about dizziness and lightheadedness that he was experiencing. Within just a few seconds of explaining his symptoms, he began to ask us what happened. He said he couldn’t remember getting hit at all. I then understood why I felt the need to run him through a SCAT.
He couldn’t remember what he had for lunch that day, and even after explaining multiple times what happened, he could not retain the information. I checked his pupils and continued to ask him some recall questions while assuring him that it was okay that he couldn’t remember. We then went inside for a SCAT assessment were he had a symptom score of 25 which confirmed our suspicions of a concussion. This experience taught me that I need to trust my instincts when my gut is telling me something. I often question my intuition, and it was very encouraging that I had the right feeling in this situation. Also, it made me remember just how important it is that we let the athlete know that we are there for them. I was tempted to get impatient when he kept asking what happened, but I knew each time that I explained it that he felt a little better about the situation. His comfort was worth way more than the time it took me to explain what happened a few times. At the beginning of the semester when we first discussed this event, it was so far away that I wasn’t really affected by it at all. For me, it was just another thing to put on my to do list. As we got closer, I didn’t think I was going to be able to participate at all because of my tennis matches. It fell farther and farther off my radar until we were assigned the risk management plan. This assignment was fairly difficult for all of us because there were so many things that we weren’t used to considering. I have never talked about what outsourcing AT work really looks like with any of my preceptors, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. To go even farther, there were so many questions we had because we would be working with young children. Can we splint dislocations? What will parent interactions be like? What if the parents signed a consent form, but tries to deny their child treatment? I feel like once we asked these questions and heard back from Mr. Larkin, a lot of our anxieties were eased.
Unfortunately, I did not get to spend much time at all at the tournament, but I truly enjoyed the time I did have there. At first I was extremely nervous for a few reasons: these are basically babies, parents of young kids make me nervous, I had never been with wrestling before and didn’t really know much about it at all, and being rushed during an eval gave me some anxiety. When I first got there, Amethyst and Audrey were showing me the ropes and telling me the in’s and out’s of how everything worked. Once I got accustomed to the new atmosphere and got an idea of what wrestling culture was like, I felt much better. I thought that having more autonomy would freak me out, but I truly enjoyed it. It allowed me to think much more clearly compared to having someone constantly looking over my shoulder. I didn’t have too many patient contacts, but the one that sticks out to me the most was a child with a busted nose. As I came onto the mat, he was pretty freaked out about it (plus he was losing). While trying to get the bleeding to stop and get the nose plug ready, I was able to talk to him a little bit about how he was doing on the mat. The conversation seemed to calm him down, and the last thing I said before coming off the mat was, “You got this, man. You can do it.” His coached echoed me, and told the athlete, “See! She thinks you can do it. C’mon.” Even though he did not win that match, it was a great experience to speak encourage into a young athlete who had such a strong desire to compete and make his team proud. Looking back, I wish that I had spent more time learning about wrestling before coming to the tournament. I felt unprepared when it came to what types of injuries and conditions to expect, and I wish I would have understood what to get ready to see. I couldn’t help but jump a little as their little necks were moved around, but I soon understood that they practice flexibility and neck strength for a reason. In the future, I will definitely take more time to learn about the sport that I’m covering before arriving. I feel that having the opportunity to practice as a clinician with less supervision truly gave me a confidence boost right when I needed it. We will be hearing very soon about the results of our BOC, and this experience has shown me that if those results are in my favor, I am competent to professionally practice what I have studied for the past four years. 4/14/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #13Speaking about strengths and weaknesses is always something I find very interesting, especially when talked about with my peers. For my first strength, I feel like I am very good at listening to my patient. When I am working with the athletes, I always try to create a personal relationship with them so that they feel comfortable while I work with them. I have heard some athletes talk about their time in the clinic, and some often struggle with feeling heard, whether that be about their lives, their treatments, or their pain. I make it a point to always ask the patient about their day, their classes, and what’s going on outside of school. I do this to assure the athletes that they are not a bother to me, and that I do care about them and what’s going on in their lives. Secondly, I always try to speak to my patients about making goals. One example of this was when a baseball player was coming into the clinic with chronic back pain. I asked him what his first goal would be, and he responded with, “I want to be able to sit through an entire class without any pain.” This gave me an opening to gauge his progress and a tangible goal that we could celebrate when it was accomplished. Lastly, I try to ask about once a week what worked that week and what didn’t work that week. If something new in rehab was working, I try to continue to incorporate it. If a treatment did nothing to help them, I try not to waste their time and my time, so I cut it out when I have the option to do so.
I believe my second strength would be diagnosing. I find it very easy to evaluate someone and narrow down my options for a diagnosis very quickly. I am lucky to have a good memory, so that helps me remember signs and symptoms for injuries and conditions. It also helps that I am very interested in pathology, so figuring out what someone has is like a puzzle to me. It may be unprofessional to call diagnosing a game, but sometime I just pretend it’s a game and I need to ask questions to the athlete to find the answer and win the game. My first weakness has been fairly consistent over the last several semesters - rehab. I still do not enjoy making rehabs, which makes it hard for me to want to spend time in that area. However, this semester I have had the opportunity to follow many baseball players rehabs, and we have been able to see some improvement. There is no better feelings than hearing an athlete tell you that what you have been doing for them is working. This has encouraged me to continue to grow and learn in this area. Another weakness I have discovered that I have is being comfortable with autonomy in new situations. This weekend we spent time at the AAU Wrestling National Championship, and I was nervous about it the entire week prior to going. I knew that we would have more freedom than before, and I knew we would be covering children, so I was very scared of messing up or not catching something important. When everything was said and done, there was no reason for me to doubt my ability, and I even had a great time with this new experience. I will be finding out if I am eligible for certification very soon, and I hope that in this last little bit of my time at Emory, I can find the confidence to practice as an autonomous clinician. 3/30/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #11One of the most difficult conversations that I have had to have is with my mother about a trip I was anticipating on taking. As a freshman in college, my mother’s opinion was hands down the opinion that I valued the most. During that first semester at college, I was presented with the opportunity to travel to Jordan in the Middle East with a Habitat for Humanity group on campus. At first, I thought the idea of going to the Middle East was a crazy idea.. “Who in the world would want to go THERE?”. However, as much as I hated the idea to begin with, the opportunity kept presenting itself, and soon I felt the call to go. I knew that if I was going to follow Jesus, I would have to do everything He told me to do, and that included going anywhere and everywhere if He asked. When I told my parents that I was pretty sure that I was going to go on this trip, it was the beginning of months of disagreeing, arguing, and tension within the household. I knew that my parents only wanted the best for me and felt obligated to protect me with everything that they had, but we continued to butt heads on this topic. At first, it made me angry that they were not willing to support me on something that I knew was a call from God. I couldn’t understand how they didn’t see the situation the same way that I did.
Soon, I let the anger go and tried explaining my situation in a different way. I stated that I could see how my mom was frustrated and scared about the trip, but I was not just going to have a fun trip. I calmly explained my heart behind why I was doing what I was doing, and we both allowed the other to talk without interrupting one another. Before long, my mom was ready to help my apply for a passport. We had finally found common ground. Shortly after that, I received word that the trip was cancelled. The point of the experience was not to go to Jordan, but to learn obedience to the Lord and to learn to communicate efficiently and respectfully. Most times when I enter into a disagreement with another person, I think back to the learning curve that was experienced concerning that trip. I am reminded that I will not always be right, and a true “right” may never be found, but there is always something to walk away with when both people feel heard and mutual respect is maintained. I am nowhere near perfect in my execution of this, but I know this is an area that I will be able to continue to grow. 3/18/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #9This month’s slogan honestly made me laugh when I first heard it. “ATs are Health Care” seemed like a dumb slogan because, to me, it was already known. I thought to myself, “Of course we are health care, why would you just state the obvious?”. Now, after talking a lot in class about how our profession is perceived and reflecting on some of my own experiences, I understand that this simple slogan has the potential to be very powerful. I began looking back on my experiences of times when someone has asked me what my major was and then after I responded, they mention how they are looking to get into shape to see if I could make them a program. I cannot count the amount of times that someone has mistaken me for a personal trainer, not an ATHLETIC TRAINER. I even got to the point that I wouldn’t even take the time to correct them on their misunderstanding, and now I realize how wrong I am to not do that. It is my responsibility to educate those that I come in contact with on what my profession is and what I actually do because otherwise, we will forever be mistaken as personal trainers and waterboys.
I try my best to embody this slogan by taking pride in what I do. I work hard in my classes to ensure that my knowledge is up to par (hopefully more than minimally competent). I do not mind admitting when I do not know something, but I work hard to ensure that I am knowledgeable in the areas I am responsible for, especially when I know that I will have to communicate that to the athletes. I find peace in knowing that my patients are confident in my ability to treat them and know what is wrong with them. Additionally, I try my best to not highlight the areas of the profession that athletic trainers are stereotypically known for, like getting the water together and taping. Those are as much a part of the job as any other area, but that is not what athletic trainers should be known for. I try to be intentional about talking up our ability to diagnosis injuries, create rehabs, and provide emergency care for athletes because most people I speak to are most surprised to hear that those areas are a huge part of the profession. 3/10/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #8At first glance, I saw worth and value as the same thing. Many would equate something’s worth as equal to its value; however, I don’t think this is always true. I think worth better represents a monetary construct. I believe one’s worth as an athletic trainer is how much he or she believes they should get paid based on what they bring to the table. I believe value encompasses worth, but also accounts for more abstract concepts. For example, one’s expertise in ACL injuries, one’s ability to perform administration tasks, or other credentials outside the ATC could all contribute to one’s value. I think it becomes a sticky situation when we base all of our ideas of our own worth off someone else’s opinion. If I were to let the website that told me that my job was similar to that of a lifeguard (not saying they are not important), my opinion of my training and my profession would drop considerably. Unfortunately, I feel that in many positions, someone who doesn’t understand the VALUE of an athletic trainer is making the decision about the monetary WORTH of an athletic trainer. I think we often times cut ourselves short because other people have cut us short for so long because of a lack of knowledge about what we do and what we are capable of.
I feel that it is very important that we educate ourselves about our value by comparing what we can do to that of other professions, and by doing so, I feel like we will have a greater understanding of our worth. I know that doing the worth assessment in O&A last semester truly opened my eyes to how underpaid and under appreciated our profession is. By simply being there to provide an ankle tap, we are saving our institution a substantial amount of money. So, I believe the first step in bettering this profession is having a realistic understanding of our value and how much our services are worth. Secondly, I believe that we should work to educate employers on the benefit of what we do. If they realize how helpful we can be to their establishment, how much money we could end up saving them, and how much happier and safer their other employees are, then we have a real case to present them with. However, presenting this takes time and effort, but in the end if it gets me the job, I’m willing to do it. 2/24/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #6Honestly, I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to networking, not in the least. It is difficult for me to wrap my mind around meeting someone just to say that I have met them, so that I can use them as a resource later. Perhaps I am thinking about it negatively or with the wrong attitude, but when I am intentional about meeting someone it is usually because I have a desire to know them and know their story. Networking in itself is hardly ever something that is in the forefront of my mind. I think that I sometimes feel guilty or wrong about what I think networking is because I don’t want to seem like I am using others. I am sure that there is a happy medium between being genuinely interested in knowing people and knowing how to network, and I would like to find that.
So to approach the question of how I approach networking, I do not really approach it at all. I do not actively seek out opportunities to network for my future profession; however, I know it is something that will be helpful in the future. I cannot and do not expect employers to take my own word about who I am if they do not know me or trust someone else’s opinion of me. Therefore, I would like to learn more about networking and how to do it with class without making others feel used or just like another stepping stone to get me to where I want to be. Additionally, I would like to better understand how to create that relationship with someone that I can then call back on upon to have that “it’s who ya know” moment. If I only meet someone once or twice, how appropriate is it that I call them up to ask for a job or reference or whatever else? Because I feel at that point they do not necessarily know much about me if anything at all. I have had opportunities and been presented with chances to network, especially within the pre-health club and trips with athletic training, but the amount of times that I have taken advantage of these opportunities are few. I feel like I struggle to take advantage of these opportunities because of my poor understanding/outlook on my abilities to network. I would like to learn more about the topic. 2/9/2019 0 Comments Reflective Journal #4I feel like trust is one of the components that makes our job so special. We are given ample opportunities to create relationships and build that trust with the athletes, something many other health professionals do not have the opportunity to do. Personally, I love taking advantage of this opportunity. When I first arrive with a team, I make an intentional effort to learn all of the athletes’ names. I feel that this is a very simple task, but it can make a lasting impression, especially with bigger teams where it is easy to feel like another number on the team. In most aspects of my life, I try to relate to people using humor. When I have been around the team long enough for them to get used to seeing me, I try to initiate conversation with humor, sort of like those ice breaker games without the awkwardness (although sometimes it’s still awkward). Eventually, by simply asking them about their days, where their from, chatting about their major, or making intentional conversation, it’s easy to see that the trust begins to grow. There is no better feeling than when an athlete chooses to approach you with their questions or for help; it feels as if you have taken the next step with the team.
I feel that establishing trust may be the most important step in the relationships with the athletes. As athletic trainers, it is already most people’s first reactions to doubt your knowledge and education due to the stereotype that surrounds the profession, AKA “professional water boys”. I have heard multiple times that all some athletes think we do is make ice bags and set up the water. Due to this stigma, it is important that we show them that we ARE invested in their lives and in their health while being vigilant about what we do to show that we are competent and capable of being great clinicians. When an athlete trusts us, they are more likely to buy in to the treatment or rehabilitation that we are providing them with, which will help the psychological aspect of the healing process. If an athlete does not have confidence in their athletic trainer, the athlete will constantly be hesitant to do what he or she says or trust their diagnosis. Additionally, I feel like this can put a lot of pressure on athletic trainers to be “perfect” because one wrong diagnosis can potentially ruin the trust that was established with the athlete. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2019
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