Emili Stack

Health Sciences II/ Carnes

Period 4 Day2
Internship

Daily Journal Entries of Experiences

Day #1
Date: 4/7/2017
Hours: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Mentor: Sam (Athletic Trainer)
Summary of Experience: The first day of my internship had around 10 patients, most of which arrived to the athletic office with the

chief complaint of a minor muscle sprain. This was considered a short-term injury, and Sam would tape an ice pack to the area with

athletic elastic tape. One athlete from track and field had been experiencing soreness located on his biceps femoris for the past two

weeks. He had been rolling the back of his right leg with a foam muscle roller for a couple of minutes before I came inside the training

room. He rolled his muscle for 5 more minutes, after which Sam showed him exercises the patient could do at home to stretch and

strengthen his muscle. Another athlete from baseball arrived to the training room expressing concern over his elbow, as he could not

move it without experiencing a sharp pain. He was a pitcher, and had been in the process of catching a ball when he suddenly tripped

and fell right on his elbow. After Sam examined it carefully, shifting the arm ever-so slightly and asking where the pain was located,

he deemed it was not a broken bone, but a sprained elbow. Sam put ice and elevated the arm, and made a referral to the boys’ physical

therapist. He then made a sling for the boy and informed him he was not to play baseball until his elbow was fully healed, which Sam

approximated was to be within 4 weeks. Sam left the athletic training room at 5:30 p.m., as the athletes were released at 5:00 and most

of them had already gone home.

Day #2
Date: 4/12/2017
Hours: 3:47 – 7:02 p.m.
Mentor: Sam (Athletic Trainer)
Summary of Experience: There were very few patients today; there was a track meet and only but one athlete was sitting out due to

injury (the one runner from the week before who had injured his biceps femoris). Sam and I left the training room at exactly at 4:00,

and I carried his athletic trainer medical bag out to the track shed. I had also filled a bucket with ice and brought a roll of ice bags.

After placing the kit, ice bags, and ice bucket in the shed, I joined Sam in watching the track meet. When I offered to hold the

umbrella, he hilariously replied “Yea, good idea…I’ll look like a professional if I don’t have to hold my own umbrella.” I believe it

was because he wanted to run out immediately if someone was injured. Sam was very attentive and focused on watching nothing but

the runners and hurdlers, which he explained was because he needed to see exactly what happened if someone was suddenly injured

while running. After a few events, one runner approached Sam and told him that while he was running, he tripped and twisted his
ankle. Sam then said, “I know, I had seen how you were running when you twisted it.” He then told the athlete to go to the training

room in the morning the next day so Sam could examine it and recommend treatment. Another boy approached us and asked if he

could have a band aid. The boy had been running with his spikes on when he accidently kicked his calf muscles with his spikes. Sam

gave him a rubbing alcohol pad, a small packet of antibiotic ointment (just in case his spikes were rusty), and a couple of band-aids.

At 7:00 p.m., the track meet ended and Sam left shortly after we returned the supplies back to the training room.

Day #3
Date: 4/13/2017
Hours: 3:39 – 6:10 p.m.
Mentor: Sam (Athletic Trainer)
Summary of Experience: I arrived at the training room at 3:39 p.m., right when track students started arriving in large groups to

Sam’s office to talk about the injuries and pains they had received from the day before. One athlete had strained her calf muscle while

she was running the 1400 meter event the day before, and because Sam was busy helping a line of other students with minor injuries

and sprains, he gave her a large heat compress that she put over her calf muscles. Another girl arrived to the training room, expressing

concern over a pain in her hip area. Sam asked the girl to stand up straight, and he then said that her legs looked slightly uneven and

they she was experiencing leg length discrepancy caused by irregular hips. He then showed her a series of exercises to readjust her leg

length, and taped an ice pack right at her lumbar area to mitigate hip pain. There were two cases of a pulled hamstring (which Sam

told me the day before was the most common injury young runners experience). He showed both patients how to do muscle stretches

to strengthen the muscle as it repaired, and taped ice packs around their hamstring muscles. While Sam was assisting an athlete who

had strained his left abdominal external oblique muscle, I was helping several athletes by taping ice packs around their calf muscles or

ankles. After track practice had ended, a crowd of track athletes surged into the training room to either get their extremities wrapped

with ice packs or to use the ice bath. This had been the first time I had seen the ice bath being used; kids would place buckets of

crushed ice into the metal bathtub and fill it with cold water. Then a series of athletes would try to submerge their calf muscles into the

bath, while 1 or 2 individuals sat inside the tub filled with cold water. Each athlete spent around 10-15 minutes in the ice bath, and

while they were doing that Sam was placing Chinese suction cups on one wrestler and two runners. First, Sam would rub liniment on

the area, and would place a lubricating gel on the edges of the Chinese suction cup (making them easy to remove). He’d place the cups

on the target areas, and use a suction gun to raise the skin within the plastic cups. He’d then wait 5-10 minutes before removing the

cups. When the athletes were starting to leave, I wiped the floor with a towel and placed old towels on the floor so students getting out

of the ice bath could dry their feet. I wiped down all the beds with sanitizing wipes and washed the suction cups with dish soap. After

the athletes had left the training room, Sam left at 6:10 p.m.
Day #4
Date: 4/14/2017
Hours: 3:33 – 5:39 p.m.
Mentor: Sam (Athletic Trainer)
Summary of Experience: The girl that had injured her calf muscles two days before came to the training room again to ask Sam what

treatment he recommended. He showed her a series of exercises she could do at home to strengthen the muscle as it healed, and

afterwards she spent 30 minutes rolling out her calf muscles with a foam muscle roller. A wrestler arrived to the office also, asking

Sam if he could put Chinese suction cups on his upper back while “setting them on fire”, which I was told was a reference to the

Karate Kid (now that I’ve looked it up, it’s called “Chauva”). While Sam did not use the Chauva method of cupping, he still placed

the suction cups on the wrestler’s upper back and shoulders. Later, a girl walked into the training room, saying that she had been

experiencing a sharp pain in her lower stomach/ upper pelvic area for a couple of hours. As she conveyed how the pain was on the

right/central side of her lower abdomen, I told Sam that it could have been appendicitis, as I recalled experiencing symptoms closely

associated with the ones she was feeling when I had my appendix removed. He agreed, and told her to call her parents immediately, as

she needed to visit the hospital for further diagnosis and treatment (surgery in ER). From 3:30 to 5:00, there were not many visitors

that day. This was a good thing, because Sam had to leave earlier than 5:30 if he wanted to pick his little boy up from preschool.

Unfortunately, just at 5:00, a mass of athletes made way into the training room (many were not injured at all and just wanted to hang

out with their friends). At 5:20, there were 7 kids starting to create an ice bath. Because Sam was not the type of person to tell these

kids to leave, I tidied up the room ahead of time by sweeping the floor, spraying and wiping the beds with antibacterial spray, and

laying down floor towels for the athletes. As soon as Sam put used suction cups in the sink, I would run over to wash them and place

them back in their holders. At 5:30, the students started to leave. Since the room was already organized and prepped for the next day,

Sam and I could just turn on the drain to let the ice baths empty out. Just as he was locking his door at 5:35, a boy and girl arrived at

the window with the request that Sam examine the boy’s left leg. And being the good athletic trainer he was, Sam opened the door and

inspected the boy’s injury. He then informed the athlete that he had just a minor sprained ankle, and wrapped the boy’s ankle in

athletic tape.

Day #5
Date: 4/18/2017
Hours: 3:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Mentor: Sam (Athletic Trainer)
Summary of Experience: As soon as I arrived, Sam was busy placing suction cups on the shoulders of three athletes. A runner lay

down on the bed and Sam placed a heat compress on the back of his legs. There was no much cleaning or helping for me to do, so

Sam, the runner, and I chatted about OSU for a while. I also chose this opportunity to interview Sam and ask him a series of questions

(which became my Internship Mentor interview). I found out that Sam wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon during his early years at
the university, but after speaking with his friends who were doctors, Sam realized that that profession was not suited for him. He knew

an athletic trainer at OSU, and after shadowing him for an internship, he changed his ambitions to become an athletic trainer. He

played several sports throughout his high school career, so naturally the notion of becoming an athletic trainer excited him. But what I

appreciated from Sam was that he did not try to push the idea of becoming an athletic trainer at me; he understood that I had to make

my decisions for myself and told me that someday I will discover the career that’ll make me happy in life. Athletes would arrive to the

training room sporadically from 3:30 – 5:00; there were not many patients until track and field was released at 5:00. As I waited for

athletes to arrive, I’d fold towels and place the wet ones to dry on the edge of the ice bath. Around 4:30, Mrs. Elliot arrived to the

athletic trainer’s office while assisting a junior. He appeared to be delirious and in a haze, and he was acting very tired. Sam asked

what was wrong, and Mrs. Elliot explained that he had tripped during track practice and that he landed right on the back of his head.

He was momentarily unconscious when his peers tried to get his attention, so Mrs. Elliot brought him over to Sam so he could confirm

the boy had a concussion or not. Since I was job shadowing Sam, I was allowed to stay in the room quietly as he asked him questions

such as, “What year is it?” and “Who’s the president of the United States?” It took the patient around 10 seconds to think of the

answer, and each time the patient would rub his eyes and stare at Sam in confusion. At the end of the interview process (which took

about roughly 6 minutes), Sam affirmed that he was experiencing most of the symptoms of a concussion and that he needed to contact

the boy’s physician. The boy’s parents were notified and he was taken to a hospital by his parents soon after. Around 5:15, athletes

started to gather in the athletic trainer’s room again, so I set up the ice baths and set out towels for the athletes. This time the athletes

did not leave at 5:30; many of them stayed because Sam was not going to leave for home until 6:30. For the next hour, I washed used

suction cups that Sam had placed on the athletes and chatted with a few athletes that I knew. Several girls asked me if I could tape ice

bags around their injuries for them, to which I obliged. I prepared ice bags for a couple of other athletes I saw with sprains. By 6:10,

Sam was treating only one more patient whom was experiencing a sharp pain when moving her right foot in plantar flexion. Sam

called this “plantar fasciitis”, and gave her unique shock absorbers to place in her shoes. I placed a cold compress next to her feet to

reduce the pain, and when she left I gave her an ice pack. I laid dirty towels on the floor and wiped the counters clean, and we left the

training room at 6:30 p.m.

Day #6
Date: 5/4/2017
Hours: 3:17 – 5:34 p.m.
Mentor: Sam (Athletic Trainer)
Summary of Experience: This was the last time I would job shadow Sam, as I had been keeping track of all my hours (by marking

them on my phone) and I told Sam that this was my last day. I thought that Sam would be mad at me because I had not visited him for

over two weeks (I was studying for AP tests), but as soon as he saw me he said “Hey Emili! How was AP testing?” He told me that he
would be staying until 5:30 p.m. and that I would be welcome to job shadow him again if I needed any more hours, but I only needed

a couple more hours anyway. Since I was gone for two weeks, there were a lot of new athletes coming to the training room that I had

not yet met. There was not much for me to do, but as I was sitting on the floor I saw how dirty it was under a bench. While Sam was

massaging a student with tight shoulder muscles, I was sweeping the floor with paper towels. While washing my hands, I found that

the soap dispenser (probably still there since the building of the school) did not work, so I dedicated my efforts to unclogging it so

Sam could use it later. Sam had told me that he had tried to use it the week before but it just shot all over him. Well, that happened to

me too, except it got all over the towels so I had to vigorously rub neon pink soap out of white cloths. Perhaps 20 minutes later I had

finally finished, and at that time track athletes were just arriving for their ice tub ritual. I filled the tubs with ice and prepared a few ice

packs for some athletes with muscle aches. By this time in the season, the Chinese suction cups had gotten really popular among the

athletes and many were asking Sam if they could place some on them. I was busy washing used suction cups for the remainder of that

time, and afterwards I would wipe the floors dry. By 5:20, all the athletes had left the room, so for the last time I helped Sam organize

some things and wipe the benches clean. I had printed out an hour sheet and I asked for his signature, and he said “You should see my

signature- it’s amazing”. He signed the hour sheet, and I thanked him again so letting me job shadow him (I’d later go back to give

him a bag of chicken eggs as a thank you gift, and I’m actually planning on bringing him flowers after I graduate for his wife). As I

left the training room, I saw that his signature was a single “z” in cursive, and I laughed.