Week 2 Reflection

Week Two Reflection

This week was a very busy one in the athletic training room and very tedious because it was the end of the spring athletic season. Everything needed to be restocked and cleaned for the summer. I never knew how much effort goes into making sure an athletic trainer has all the materials needed to perform their duties. This week really gave me a clear picture of what the whole process of athletic training is about, because it included restocking materials, taking care of patients, and getting everything ready for next year and clean for the summer. I want to thank Kelly again for helping me out, it was hard work, I learned as much as I could handle, and most of all it was a good time for me.
One thing I learned was how crucial it was to provide athletes with the proper medical kits when they have home and away games. We emptied out the medical kits and restocked them with everything needed for the teams games. It was amazing how many materials get lost from each medical kit. I would have to say each medical kit needed at least four or five, different pieces of medical supplies replaced. We had to restock twelve kits! That is a lot of materials after we went through them all. Next year I would suggest we do it half way through the spring season also. I think Kelly had me do this activity because she wanted to show me athletic training was not all about taking care of athletes. The first step is very important and that is to be prepared to take care of athletes. She also got me into doing the tedious grunt work that all athletic trainers have to perform, which is the cleaning of their work space. We emptied out the ice chest and cleaned it down, and did the same with all the water jugs, and heating packs holder. This made me realize that everything in the training room is not about the glory from diagnosing an injury or taping an ankle, it is about the preparation to be ready to shine in the moment and help athletes out that are injured.
As for the real learning part of this week goes, I learned about concussions and how to access them. I learned that concussions are very difficult to diagnose, not in terms of actually diagnosing them, but diagnosing what grade of concussion they are. There are so many scales of concussions, that is is difficult to tell which one is the best and the most accurate. This over lapped perfectly with my medical science class because we discussed concussions and how they were to be treated, tested, and diagnosed. I learned all the twelve cranial nerves from Kelly and how to test them all using simple tests. Taking the concussion test was very long and annoying because it asked you the same things over and over again and was not interesting, i lost my attention span half way through. After doing that I now know why athletes with head injuries have to take it. It is because it can be compared with their base line test which you take when you do not have a concussion. One exciting moment was when I was the on site trainer at the softball game and an injury occurred. I had to clean up a deep cut from sliding on the field. I did it properly and Kelly was very impressed with my work.
I benefitted from this week’s activities because it brought the whole picture of athletic training into my vision. I learned about the cleaning, and restocking, and first hand about the treatment needed on the spot during an intense competition. I to thank Kelly and Chris for leading me these two weeks and teaching me so much. I will miss the Proctor athletic training room and staff immensely.