Week 1: Organizational Culture

This week was my first week working with the Sports Medicine Department at the University of Richmond. As an intern, I work with the football team in the morning and then with the basketball team in the afternoon. I typically have to arrive about 15 minutes before the first practice begins to set up the field with the other intern I am working with. We have to bring out the stationary bike, defibrillator and first aid pack, and any equipment the injured athletes might need for treatment. Along with this, we fill up a Gatorade jug for the players to refill their water bottles, if needed. Once practice begins, the other intern and I start working with the injured players on the field. For the first couple of days, I was mostly observing how the athletic trainers worked with the athletes and learned about their injury. On Thursday, I started working on them myself. Right now, I am working with five athletes on both teams. Two of them are recovering from an ACL repair surgery, two of them had stress fractures on their foot, and the last one had an Achilles injury. After the second group is done practicing, we have to break down the field and put everything away. As I am working with the athletic trainers, they explain the anatomy and physiology behind everything, which is helpful for me to understand how the treatment is helping.

Some of the values at my internship site are reliability/dependability and commitment. As an intern I am working with a large group of people, athletic trainers, athletes, and coaches. There are many people depending on me to be able to complete my tasks in a timely manner. By completing my obligations in a reasonable time frame, the people I work with learn that I am trustworthy and honor my commitments. These responsibilities allow me to hold myself accountable, managing my time wisely, because others are depending on me. This is the most important to the athletes because they are trusting me to help them recover for them to play again. Commitment is also a very important value as well. Many of the athletic trainers I work with go above and beyond for their athletes to ensure a great recovery. It also takes a lot of commitment to come to work at 5:45am five days a week and stand outside for their practices no matter how the weather is, rain or shine. The interactions between the athletic trainers and the athletes are always positive. It is very important to have a positive mindset when working with the athletes who are injured. Being out from practices and unable to do anything can be very frustrating and it can get hard to stay positive which is why it is so important for there to be people who can uplift them when they are feeling down. These interactions are also more on the informal side as the players and those working with them feel comfortable around each other since they know each other well. Most of the time we talk to them about sports, their injury, and casual conversation about how they are doing.