Tayler Parrish submitted 2020-10-31
Emergency medical care can be very stressful because you are never expecting it to happen. You should always be prepared for it and have the necessary equipment to help the patient, but it will almost always be shocking when it happens. One way to prepare mentally is to practice and figure out what helps you to keep your composure during scary and unexpected situations. It is important to always remain calm and even if you are actually freaking out on the inside, you have to put up a confident and relaxed front for the sake of the patient and all of those who are involved. For example, when an athlete gets injured on the field during a game, their adrenaline is going to be at an all-time high and is going to help distract them a little bit from looking at their injury. As an athletic trainer it is our job to then go and shield the injury from not only the patient’s sight but from everyone else on and around the field. You then have to reassure the patient and let them know that they are going to be okay and that we are going to do all the necessary procedures to help them get better. All of these steps help to make sure that the patient doesn’t start to go into shock, which can be fatal. Another way you can prepare mentally, is by memorizing all the necessary procedures for all different injuries. Not all injuries are the same and must be treated in the way they are supposed to. Being confident in your memorization and ability to perform these treatments will help you to feel comfortable and prepared for any injury that could happen. To ensure that you will be ready for all possible injuries, it is your job and responsibility to do all the necessary things to help you remember the steps and procedures. Some things you can do as a student to become confident in your skills are practicing them with your professors and other students, read and do some research on each treatment, and watch step by step videos and take notes. It is also important that you keep up on any updated steps because treatments can evolve throughout the years. This leads into one of the ways that you can prepare yourself physically. It is very important that as an athletic trainer, that you feel comfortable using all of the emergency equipment needed. As a student, especially in the beginning of your program, the majority of the time you will be allowed to use and practice with the equipment will be during class time. However, it is very important that you set aside time to come back and take a better look at all of the equipment, so you become familiar with how to use it. You should also ask your professors if there is any way you could set up a time outside of class to practice with them on how to use it. If you do not have any extra free time to come back and work with your professors or they just do not have the time to work with you outside of class, then you could always utilize the internet and do extra research and watch step by step videos. Another way to prepare yourself physically is to make sure you have all of the necessary equipment for all possible injuries with you when you are at your sporting event. It is not going to do you much good if you are confident in using the emergency equipment, but you do not have it readily available to you in an emergency situation. To help make sure that you have all the correct equipment for the event you are going to, you could always make a check list that includes everything you think you will possibly need for the night. When making your list, if you are going back and forth on if you should bring a certain piece of equipment, you should always just decide to bring it because it is better to be over prepared and not use it, than to be stuck when a specific injury happens and you do not have it. It might take a lot of time and effort to get to a place where you are mentally ready to help with someone’s injury, but it is extremely important. It can help your patient get quickly into recovery and it can also save their life. This is why you must follow all of these recommendations stated in this paper, to make sure you are best prepared to get out there and help someone when you are needed.