Culminating Blog Post

I used communication throughout my project by asking the student athletes how they feel and how sore their injury feels. You have to communicate with them in order to know what to do for the day. This is where the critical thinking comes into place. After the student athlete tells you how they feel you have to figure out what is going to be needed most. It could either be stretching, or exercises or massage etc. A lot of the times you have to use your creativity to accomplish what you and the athlete have to do. For example, if the athlete needs to work on their quad muscles you look for the items or materials they need such as a shuttle. Lastly, collaboration comes into the picture when it is time to start the work outs of the day. You have to put your part of the effort to help the student athlete. I used all these characteristics on my paper as well. I had to use my critical thinking and creativity to make my paper interesting and I had to communicate my thoughts with the reader.

I gained personal experience throughout my project by shadowing my mentor. I went an saw all the steps he had to follow in order to get where he wanted to be with the athlete. Also I helped him with a couple of athletes by stretching them out and setting up a heating towel or materials. It helped me feel good In a personal level. This project helped me socially because this plays a huge part in the profession. You have to be talkative and keep the athlete interested in order for the time to go by fast and make them feel comfortable. It helped me understand how to socialize with the patients the right way and not in an awkward way. Finally, it helped me intellectually because I learned a couple of injuries and how they happened. Surprisingly I understood the reasons and it all made sense in a strange way. It opened my mind to how amazing the human body works.

There were a couple of challenges that I encountered. One was how to have the student athletes or patients not feel awkward and doubtful around me. This was especially hard for me since I was just a high school student with no medical degree. However, watching my mentor work with them showed me how exactly to make them feel comfortable around me. He seemed very calm and confident and gave them a smile here and there. That is what I did and by the end of the day they spoke to me about their studies and their day. The second and last challenge was understanding why injuries happen and how they get fixed. It took me a while to wrap my head around what my mentor explained to me but it made sense after a while. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I want to do this as my career.