For a future job I know that building a resume can be the most important thing to do to look appealing for future employers. Coming from a bachelor’s degree when the athletic training degree is now transitioning into a master’s programs in going to be a challenge for what I wish to go into. But nothing looks better than the experience and who you know. While I was in London, I talked to many of the athletic trainers for professional baseball teams as well as the president for PBATS and they explained to me that they want to see that you have had the hands-on experience and thy want to really know what you can do. I understand that I will not start off in the MLB but have to work my way up from the minor league. Mark O’Neal also told me that once they see what you can do, if they get a call from a team needed an athletic trainer, they will refer you themselves.
I would like to further my education and continue on to receive my DAT, however I would like to get my foot in the door first and work in the field. I also did my second Ortho clinic of the semester. I was able to present three patients to Dr. Hannula. The first patient, a cross country/ track runner, who has a deformity on their medial shin. I have worked with this athlete before and knew they said when massaging it, it will go away for a little while and decreasing the stress load while running. Dr. Hannula looked at it and was confused by it, thinking possibly a cyst but needing x-rays and an MRI to rule in the injury. So, I was able to fill a claim form and instruct the patient to fill out new patient paperwork. The second patient, a rugby player, during the tournament Saturday dislocated their shoulder and was able to reduce it, this was their first time dislocating their shoulder. Dr. Hannula explained that once someone experiences a dislocation 50% will experience another dislocation. He said that right now there is no need to do any imaging just strengthen the shoulder. I was able to put the evaluation into ATS but no additional information was necessary unless a dislocation occurs again. The third patient I saw was a follow-up, this patient is a rugby player who is recovering from surgery after a tib-fib dislocation, fib fracture and anterior compartment syndrome. Dr. Hannula encouraged them to start bearing weight and work of ROM. They needed additional imaging along the way to conform that healing was adequate, so I needed to complete a claim form along with USA rugby forms to cover extra costs. I learned a lot of new things this week just from Monday, including how to use a fax machine.
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It is extremely important for a patient to trust their AT for optimal healing and recovery because they will do what is necessary that the AT says to recover. First an AT must build trust with their athletes. I believe this is done by becoming friends with the athletes. I learned how important this is from Chaypin while working with women’s soccer. At the start of the session I was new to them, no one really know me that well and therefore did not trust me yet. I became very close with the soccer team in the first two weeks of preseason, building good friendships with the players. With friendships came trust. Once the session got going, we had a very hard session with injury after injury and rehab after rehab, trust was necessary. They needed to trust that we were going to be able to get them back on the field and in their prime. Chaypin allowed me to do a lot with each of the players, allowing her to also build trust in me.
When an athlete does not trust their AT they may skip rehab or skip going into the clinic to be evaluated or get treatment. When trust is not there between the AT and the athlete it may expose them to more injury. I believe that trust is the most important part of any relationship. I had a very exciting week with many rehabs that I have never experienced before from an athlete that is unable to lay supine because of a 6-8 inch scar on his bad from back surgery in the last year, to a rugby player who is recovering from a compound fracture of his tibia and fibula and anterior compartment syndrome 9 weeks out from surgery. I was also able to complete many evaluations the most exciting being an athlete with no known underlying conditions suffered seizure like symptoms, out of body experience, numbness in the extremities, dizziness, and inability to see or communicate, while running during a workout. He stopped and sat down, he was a completely different person compared to his normal self. Once he stopped running and sat down, his symptoms were still consistent, however about an hour later his symptoms started to subside. upon entering the clinic, he had nystagmus of his right eye, a pulse oz. of 96%, BP of 138/ 93, 135/93, 133/83, and a pulse of 105 at this point he had not run since he first stopped. We then had him complete a PRO of feeling. It started to raise questions as to why this was happening, if it had something to do with sleep, food, or the weather. I was also able to experience my first rugby game, one of the most exciting things I have experienced as an athletic training student. I love emergency care and that’s what I did more than anything on Saturday. I was on my toes the whole day from tons of turf burn to shoulder dislocation. The most exciting part of the day was while my back was to the field. I was doing a knee evaluation when all of the sudden a heard a giant thud, I turned around and saw a player lying on the ground not moving. I immediately stood up and ran over to the player. Joe secured c-spine and I asked the player if he could move his toes and fingers and he did I checked pulses in wrists and ankles, both good. He then started to move his legs and he knew that no life-threating injuries. We then decided that the player rolled over and hit his knee on the bench. I think more than anything he was scared and just had a contusion on his knee. On my first BOC practice exam junior year on April 8, 2018 my scores reflected from the classes I had taken, with my lowest scores in domains 4 and 5. Domains 1 through 3 were all 80% or above with a distributed total average of 69.3%. At that point, I knew where I really needed to focus and also needed to complete another class, organization and administration. I also really needed to work more in domain 4, therapeutic intervention, it has been my lowest score consistently the two times we have taken practice exams. Domain 4 weighs the heaviest on the exam and contains the most content with pharmacology, general illnesses and injuries, therapeutic exercise, modalities, and manual techniques.
On my second BOC practice exam on January 22, 2019 my scores in domains 3 through 5 increased by 4-6% however domain 1 and 2 decreased by 10-12% which took my distributed average down by 2% sadly. I took that exam two days after returning from London and while taking the exam felt pretty bad about it. I had many things to look over again and some unfamiliar terminology, so I am grateful for having theses exams in preparations for the BOC in March. I did however meet “possible strength” on domain 3, emergency care. There are still many things that I need to review as well as study a lot more. I am starting to get on a study plan to review all of my weaknesses. On my third BOC practice exam on February 3, 2019 I felt good going through the exam but did not end that way. I had a distributed average of 61.7% the only domain that I did not go down in was domain 5. I also went down 24% in domain 3, emergency care, which was very upsetting because I did not feel that I did bad during that exam. I have always been prepared for an injury during clinical experience. However, this week was a very bad week. I have had a hard week with being confident with myself in the clinic and as an athletic training student, so all I can do now is just study and move forward and succeed on the next exam. This week I was able to experience my first ortho clinic of the semester. I was able get the history of three athletes, a soccer player, a cheerleader, and a rugby/ thrower/ cheerleader. They all had very different injuries. First the soccer player who has very rounded shoulders and tendinitis with weakness in the upper back. Dr. Hannula recommended strengthening the upper back and taking alive two times a day. The second patient, the rugby/ thrower/ cheerleader, tore their ACL in the past and while doing box jumps experienced a pop on the medial side of the knee, he sent the patient for imaging the previous week. They athlete’s ACL had scared into the PCL and had tears in both menisci, however with no difficulty or pain Dr. Hannula recommended to just work on strengthening the knee. The third patient, the cheerleader, had been dropped on their neck in practice and was referred to the ER and was diagnosed with a pinched nerve in their neck. Following up with Dr. Hannula he did not agree with that diagnoses but thought they had subluxed or dislocated their shoulder. He recommended strengthening the shoulder and not too much the shoulder past the body’s midline. The most interesting case was with a football player that two hours earlier was doing hang cleans and biceps just popped. Dr. Hannula supinated and pronated the hand and attempted to hook the distal biceps tendon which was extremely positive, nothing was even there. An extreme deformity of the biceps was there as well. The athlete was in extreme pain but has had experience with many ruptures before. Hannula decided that no farther testing was needed and diagnosed a distal biceps tendon rupture. After all the patients left, I asked Dr. Hannula about biceps ruptures and how common they were in collegiate athletes and he said he had only ever seen two cases of biceps ruptures, both this year. I have experienced both of the diagnostic processes with Dr. Hannula. |