2/12/12- First Day
Today was my first day interning at Fort Lewis College in the Athletic Training Department. For the most part my mentor and I talked and got to know each other and took care of some business. We went of my schedule for the next two and a half weeks. I sat in on a class taught by one of the athletic trainers. This week and part of next week they are focusing on hips. I took some helpful notes on hips and what exactly is going on around them at all time regarding muscles. After the class I took a lunch break and came back for an hour and a half before having to return to work. During the hour and a half I had in the office a student gave me a tour and informed me on all the Monday rituals they do in the office (mostly being cleaning and getting ready for the week.) I was also taught how to take notes when a student comes in with a physical issue. After taking the notes on a sheet of paper you then have to insert them into a computer program that saves them. Unfortunately I was not able to stay for Doctor Lawtons visit but I will be able to be there next monday.
2/13/12-Day Two
Today I arrived at my internship at 8am and started by reading a few articles that were given out at a meeting last night due to work. The meeting was put on by RMSMF (Rocky Mountain Sports Medicine Foundation). In this meeting they covered throwing injuries. After reading three different articles I started on some research I was given. Most of the research regarded the National Athletic Trainers Association and the smaller associations that regard it. I also looked into the five different schools in Colorado that provide Athletic Training as a career. The five schools are FLC, Colorado State Pueblo, Mesa State, Metropolatin State, and UNC. I identified the advantages and disadvantages of each. I looked at the requirements for Athletic Training and compared the positives and negatives of each school. Next I scanned the NCAA Sports Medicine hand book which ended up being very interesting. While doing reseach an athlete came in and needed to set up an appointment with Lawton so I got to listen to that happen and then Wayne and I talked more about the umbrella that goes on with all of these kinds of things. In the Athletic Training world there is something that they refer to as the umbrella, usually on top of the umbrella there lays sports medicine. Under the umbrella there are two sides, the first being performance enhancement and the second being injury care and management. Athletic training fits under the injury care and management section. Underneath this umbrella there is a huge array of professions to choose from and in the end they all work together for the patient. After doing research I sat in on a class. The class was 220-Introductory clinical. The class was taught by my mentor Wayne. During the class they stocked their phanny packs which they take on the field with them. Inside there is usually small items that could be needed, bandaids, gauze pads, taping supplies, cpr mask. After this class I took a lunch break and came back in time for Athletics. Athletics is from 1:30 to 6:00 and it is ran before, during, and after practices are going on. So athletes that are injured can come in and get assistants at this time. I followed one of the Student athletic trainers around most of the day. She taught me how to tape ankles a few different ways. At first I was not very good at it. It looked as if I had just thrown the tape on in no organized matter. After a few tries I got a little better at it. I helped set up for Softball practice, getting water and ice ready. Usually they take the supplies out to the field on a gator but today it was broken and they were not able to. JBB is the girl that I shadowed, she worked with a few returning athletes that have to come in every day for follow up. Each of the athletes has a special routine that they know they have to do and then they are given new excerices to do. Things started to slow down in the office and I was sent home.
3/14/12-Day Three
Today I started the day off by revising my blog from yesterday and adding more things that I had done after I had finsihed posting the post. I then attended the 424 Advanced Athletic Training class. We are started out looking through peoples ears and looking for anything unusual. There is something in your ear called the "cone of light" if you shine a light into someones ear and you cannot see the cone of light there is something wrong. Any sort of abnormality will be visible if the cone of light is not shown. After doing a few minutes of looking through the classes ears the professer started up a slide show. They are on chapter 14 in their book which includes all the systemic disorders. After the class was over I helped with a football player who had torn his MCL. He had to run through a series of tests to determine if he was ready to get back on the field or not. They started off by measuring his flexion and tension in his knee. After the series of tests he was told to come back in later in the day after we had done some calculations to determine whether he could play again. The next athlete that came in was a basketball player who had dislocated her knee, torn her ACL, and scraped away most of the cartalidge in her knee. The surgery took place six weeks ago and she was just now able to get in a pool and slowly run around. The pool is a useful tool in that it gives you enough resistance but is not hard up on your body. Also there is no gravity so you are not able to fall and the water supports you as well.
3/15/12-Day Four
Today the Fort Lewis Softball team had a double header against Mesa State. I worked with Charity, the athletic trainer for the Softball team to get ready for this game. We filled water and got the field all set up for both teams. After doing the set up I sat in on a beginning class where they worked on making sure all of the sports specific trainng bags were packed and ready to go. We focused on football especially because football starts Saturday. After the class it was time to go out on the field. While I was there, there were no injuries that needed assistance.
3/16/12-Day Five
I started off the day by reading mission statements done by Atheltic Training Students. Then Hannah, an Athletic Trainer gave me a tour of the college and all of the offices of the sprots teams. She showed me the health care center and where they keep paperwork for athletes that play intramural sports. Today I sat in on 285 Evalutation of Atheltic Injuries which was a pretty interesting class. We mostly covered the reactions that we have in our hands and arm. While finding the tendon that makes it obvious where to hit you need to make sure you do not hurt them. After a quick little tap you watch for their hand to fly up or a quick movement in the arm. After this class I sat in on another class for a few minutes before going to lunch. After I got back from lunch it was Athletics time so I helped get all of the water and water bottles ready for the teams that practiced that day and then learned how to do a few more tapings. I left the office at 2:30 due to having to go work the Lacrosse game at the high school.
3/19/12-Day Six
Today I sat in on an Emergency reaction class. They were taught what to do while in a serious situation. After this class I had lunch and came back for Athletics time. During this time we did a lot of cleaning and getting waters ready for the sports.
3/20/12-Day Seven!
Today was my day out of the Fort Lewis office. I started out with Char at Durango Orthopedics. Char is a very busy woman in charge of most of the things that go on in the office. Unfortunately doctor Lawton was not in the office today which lead there not much to be done. She showed me around the office and a little bit of what her tasks are in a day. After Char I went onto San Juan Prosthetic and Orthotics where I was with Roxanne and Tim. Tim owns the business while Roxanne runs it. They are not part of Mercy, Spine Colorado, or Durango Orthopedics. I talked to Roxanne for a while about how she got into the business and what exactly she does. Tim is the owner and also makes most of the prosthetic, and he usually makes them from his home. I got to sit in on a fitting. They fit the patient before the surgery is done so that it is easier to measure. In the afternoon I worked in Integrated Physical Therapy. I Shadowed Phil and Randy mostly. I also got to follow and talk to two PT technicians, Zach and Kyle. Zach used to coach me when I played boys hockey and he had a lot of positive things to tell me about the physical therapy world. He said that most of the technicians move on and go to to Physical Therapy school or go on to be a PA. He personally is set on being a technician because he is also a personal trainer. It was very interesting listening to the progress the patients have made. I learned that there is different types of ACL surgeries. While being up at the college I have seen alot of students with ACL, MCL, or PCL injuries so this got me very interested.
3/21/12-Day Eight
Today was a simple day at the athletic training room. I did alot of observing while working on my project as well. I also conducted my mentor interview. I will have my interview posted tomorrow. I learned new taping jobs on ankles and on the wrist. We had blindfolded competitions to see you could do the best/fastest tape job without seeing. I watched alot of recovering as well. Fetched water, and also learned about STEM and also ultrasound. Did you know that ultrasound not only helps pain but also can detect fractures? That was one thing that I learned that really stook out to me.
3/22/12-Day Nine
Today I attended a basic Athletic Training class. In this class we discussed the foot and also the ankle. I did more research on NATA and also looked at postiton statements done by students. Today Jessica and Rachel aslo spent a visit while I was strapped to a spine board!
3/23/12-Day Ten
Today I did not come into the Athletic Training office until 1:30. There was nothing going on in the morning so I showed up in time for athletics. At this point we filled water bottles and 10 gallon jugs of water for almost every sport going on. I then observed many different rehabs that were going on. Throughout the week I observed a soccer girl recoverying from ACL surgery. Ive watched her process and also learned where athletes "should" be at different ponits in their injury.
3/26/12
