So far in clinical experience, I have most enjoyed the fact that I’m not moving around every two weeks. Do not get me wrong, I love the diversity and experiences of my sophomore year and rotating with every preceptor and every sport, but I am really finding an appreciation for staying with the same preceptor and teams for an entire semester. I enjoy getting to stay with the same group of athletes because it allows me to really get to know and understand them as an individual and their injury or injuries. It also allows me to to build a really good relationship with my preceptor. Not only does it help me to build a better relationship, but it also allows me to really learn and understand the treatment style that my preceptor has. Every athletic trainer has their own style, but it is hard to understand and see the difference in styles when you only stay for such a short amount of time. Since all of my friends have different preceptors than I do, we find it fun to sit and discuss the new things and new ways we are learning to do certain things, whether it be modalities, taping, or an approach to an injury eval. Each of us are able to really learn these specific techniques and quirks that our preceptor has and then share them with the rest of our class, and to me that is super exciting and makes this year really fun and special! My class is really close as is, but this is something that is making us closer! We are better able to see what we like and what we do not like, and then we share how we can make it better. I guess you could say this is really special to me because it is allowing us all to grow more as clinicians and is really opening up our eyes to AT.
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I remember in the beginning when we were starting preseason I told all the freshman and sophomores I was clinicaling with not to get over stressed. I know at the beginning a lot of them were freaking out because they didn't know how to do certain things because they hadn't had a class about it and so on. The biggest piece of advice I gave them was to be a sponge! I told them how as a sophomore coming into the program I was nervous when preseason started, but simply watching what the preceptors and older students did in the clinic helped me so so much, and continues to do so!
When I started the program, the upperclassmen really helped me out! I was timid about approaching a preceptor initially with questions, so many times an upperclassman was who I went to. At the very beginning, I knew how to stretch, but athletes would ask for specific ways I had never been taught yet. The upperclassmen usually could tell I was struggling and would help me through. As I got more comfortable, the upperclassmen really started to challenge me! It was awesome! Let's say I was with football, and we all know football means a lot of taping! The upperclassmen would challenge the underclass men to “taping wars”. We would see who could tape an ankle the fastest and who's would look the best at the end! It is one thing that I think really made me better. |