Since graduating college I can definitely say I have become a more confident and well-rounded person. I really feel like I have received the best education possible and I am ready to conquer the rest of my life. When I came into college I was a follower, and I was shy. Now I feel like my leadership skills have really grown. I am independent and do what I believe is right for me rather than relying on other people to make decisions for me. In terms of my career path I have also grown and changed a lot. I came into college wanting to be a physical therapist. All through high school I would say, “I want to be a physical therapist for athletes.” At the end of my first semester at Emory & Henry College I found out what I really wanted to be was an athletic trainer. I applied for the athletic training program as a shy, quiet, and hiding in the shadows freshman and have dramatically grown into the position of an athletic trainer. I have had some low points and I have had many high point in athletic training. I have learned a lot and I know that when I get my first job I will do very well.
My next steps are to get interviews for jobs and work in a college athletics setting. I know in the future I want to be a teacher. Being a teacher is something I believe comes naturally to me. I know this because even in high school I was able to teach a group of my peer and lead them in a saxophone ensemble. In college, I have been very successful in helping other in the anatomy and kinesiology class. I am able to help multiple people learn in a style the works best for them. So after a few years of working in a college I plan to start working on a master’s degree to further my athletic training education and get a EdD so I will be able to teach. I am so thankful for my college education. I am especial thankful for the liberal arts background because it has truly changed how I problem solve and work with other people. I am looking forward to my life after graduation. I am nervous and excited for the transition from student to athletic trainer. I have so many plans for my future and I am excited to be living my life in my own way.
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As I am preparing to graduate I am also preparing to find a job and get interviews. One of the most common interview question is, what is you great strengths and weaknesses? The last time I took a personality assessment it rated me on hundreds of personality traits. My top five personality traits I would also claim as my strengths which are Integrity, self -motivation, leadership, faith and curiosity. Integrity and faith are two strengths that I did not realize I had until taking this personality assessment. To me this means that I am true to myself and what I believe in. This can be reflected in my confidence in the athletic training clinic. I believe without these traits the athletic training profession would be tiring and wearing whenever I fail or did not do something completely right. Being faithful to myself and believing in myself is what will keep me strong and long lasting in the profession. This leads me to self-motivation and curiosity. You have to have these as strengths as an athletic trainer. You have to keep pushing yourself to find the next best thing that can be applied to medical practice. Because I am naturally self-motivated and curious I will always seek the best for myself, my patients, and whatever institution I am associated with. Finally, my last strength is leadership. I think this comes from the combination of all my other strengths. I have always been a natural leader. I believe leadership should come from within the group and should be led by example. I always seek to be an example therefore people naturally follow me and I will always help myself and other people find their version of success.
While these are my strengths, everybody has weaknesses. My weaknesses are that I am shy and I struggle to sell my skills. I have always been a shy and slow to warm up person. This is because I am an observer. I like to watch how everything is done, how other people react to certain things, and how I should be acting in a similar situation. While this does hinder me in terms of personal relationships, the end goal is always met. I will talk to people I need to talk to and I will form important relationships too. For me, it just takes longer because I like to take in all the information first. My other weakness is on that is hard to deal with, especially because all job interviews are is trying to sell your skills to someone. I think I find this hard to do because I do not like to brag on myself, but also because I struggle to get my point across on the spot. I just need a chance to prove myself in a non-verbal way. Because I can’t do this in an interview, the only thing I can do is to just keep practicing and have others give me feedback. At some point, my point and worth will get across to someone. In my athletic training 462 research and design class we have been working up all semester to learn how to critically appraise journal articles. We have learned about all the components of a journal article. The parts that I am struggling with are interpreting the statistics in the journals, but I’m slowly figuring it out. In terms of actually doing critical appraisal, we have not done one completely. So far we are learning how to use the Pedro scale. This was very confusing to me because the way it is being explained does not make sense to me when I read the criteria. I understand the concept of the Pedro scale, but being able to actually do it is difficult. I think if I can figure out all the components of critical appraisal and can practice it more I will do better. I do not believe I would have time to do this as a practicing athletic trainer. I think it is more important that I am able to understand where the data come from and how it should be used in clinical practice. Writing a critically appraised topic or paper seems like something I would not be interested in doing while I am in the clinic. I think reading from various sources and coming to my own evidence based decision is more important. I think it would be important for an athletic trainer who enjoys doing research because this would be able to help practicing athletic trainers know what article are high quality.
Last week I had a difficult conversation with one of my teammates who has been seeing our athletic trainer for an injury. He has a strange injury that for a while, the athletic trainers were not sure what was going on. At first we thought he just had shoulder impingement, but it was not responding to treatment very well. He was finally referred to our team doctor where there were neurological pathologies suspected. He went on to get some more testing don where it was found that he was in fact having a nerve pathology called parsonage turner syndrome. After this diagnosis he was told he needs to have surgery to fix it. At first he seemed uneasy about the surgery, but then he seemed to get comfortable with the idea that this needs to happen. This was until one day he came to make in frustration stating how he is going to refuse that surgery and does not care of the consequences because he does not want to lose all the time required for his shoulder to heal after the surgery. I tried to calm him down at first, but he was getting more irritated so eventually I had to match his intensity in order for him to understand me. I explained to him that he would rather lose the few months after his surgery to get better than to lose function of his arm and shoulder forever. I explained how miserable his life would be if he did not get the surgery because not only would he not be able to play golf ever again, but he wouldn’t even be able to put a shirt on by himself, or take a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator. Although he said he did not care at the time, I knew I was able to get into him that this surgery is necessary for him. I talked to him a few days later and he told me while he still does not like the idea, he is going to get the surgery. This made me happy to hear. I know he is scared if the surgery and how his golf game will be after, but I reassured him that he was making a good decision. This conversation showed me a lot about myself. I learned that sometimes you need to be aggressive with a patient to have them understand that an option would be better for them in the long run. I also learned that sometimes, you have to fight for your patient because they cannot or do not know how to fight for themselves. Surgery can be really scary for patents and the will have some low point throughout the process. Being able to keep them motivated and understanding of their condition is important for not only helping them now, but helping them be healthier in the future.
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This is where I do my weekly clinical blog assignment. There is either a prompt I am responding to, or I just talk about something exciting I saw during the week.
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April 2019
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