SPRING 2022 – ATTR 492
The following is a PowerPoint briefly explaining my senior year internship experience. I presented this presentation at our end of the year Athletic Training Program banquet.
Reflection: This internship has been an incredible learning experience for me regarding not only my athletic training skills but also my knowledge of myself. I learned about many different topics like new modalities, Hydro Worx therapy and rehabilitation, heart rate monitors, mental health solutions, scoliosis, Lisfranc surgery and rehabilitation, return to play exercises, and many different functional exercises for the lower extremity. About myself, I learned how to be assertive, confident, decisive, and timely when it comes to rehabilitation and treatment. I would say that I accomplished five of the six goals I had set for myself this semester. I was able to not only observe and discuss the lifts run by the strength and conditioning coaches, but I was also able to participate in the lifts. This gave me an opportunity to feel what the athletes feel when they progress in lift routines throughout the season. I was able to correctly diagnose most of the athletes I evaluated, but, due to small numbers, I did not evaluate as many people this semester as I expected to. Andy, Sara, and I discussed emergency scenarios, but we did not practice or go over them every other week, so I would consider this an unaccomplished goal. Each time that I evaluated an athlete, took them to the doctor, or completed new rehabilitation goals, I updated their athlete profile in SportsWareOnLine. I also provided the medical timeout information to EMS during every home game.
I think my two most valuable experiences at University of Richmond were completing a full 6–7-week rehabilitation program and watching a surgery. The surgery was for a Lisfranc injury, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn from such an experienced surgeon. I am very proud of myself for making it through the surgery with confidence and resisting fainting! For my internship project, I was able to create and run a rehabilitation plan for an ankle sprain almost completely by myself. This was new to me not only because of the incorporation of the Hydro Worx treadmill, but also because I have never completed a rehab plan from initiation to discharge on my own. Andy did help with quite a few things during return to play exercises, but this allowed me to step back and add a few new ideas to my mental toolbox. This was a very valuable learning experience for me, and I am grateful that Andy trusted me to run the program on my own. I am lucky to say that there were not many things that disappointed me about this internship. However, I can say that I felt a bit separated from the team on many occasions. Specifically, I was unable to travel with the men to any of their away games, besides VCU. Fortunately, the women allowed me to travel with them, so I was able to experience some overnight travel. I think the biggest disappointment was being told no when I asked to go to both the A10 and the NCAA tournaments with the men.
Overall, I would rate this internship a 9.5/10. The people I have met here and the connections I have made are amazing, and I am so grateful for this opportunity. I felt wanted, needed, and appreciated here no matter the circumstances. I also would like to say I never once had a panic attack during my time here, and that shows not only my own growth but the positive environment that this internship created. I did not give it a 10/10 because I would strongly encourage more travel experience opportunities for an intern like myself, especially if the teams are able to go to either of the tournaments again. I feel as though these would have been incredible learning experiences for myself considering travel, packing, treatment on the go, and rehydration techniques during a week long tournament.
Below is my internship project that I mentioned above. I thought it needed to be shared for context.
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Reflection: The goal of this project was to test the efficacy of aquatic therapy on speeding up an ankle rehabilitation timeline. We had an athlete sprain his ankle only four days after I started my internship. Given that an underwater treadmill was a new modality to add to my own personal toolbox, we decided to develop a rehabilitation plan for him utilizing this machine. There is little research specific to the collegiate athlete population using an underwater treadmill, so I wanted to create a case study to show its benefits and limitations. The project ended up being successful by shortening the timeline by one week.
The project’s strengths include the practicality of data collection because we were currently working with an injured athlete. It was helpful to be able to speak to the patient about how he felt during the rehabilitation process. I think the success of the project was also very exciting and showed how well put together our plan had been. One weakness of the project was that the athlete’s demeanor towards rehabilitation was very negative. It may have gone smoother if he was more motivated to return to play. Another difficulty was working around the mid-season game schedule.