20 hours!?

[ammonihah99]

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I am so FRUSTRATED! I've been volunteering at the hospital since November, working at the front desk like a good boy waiting to get my 40 hours so I can transfer to the PT department. I got my 40 hours done in early February and have been waiting (very patiently) for the volunteer coordinator to place me in the PT department, which never happened, so I finally got fed up and called them myself. After a week of waiting they finally got back to me! I was so excited! She asked how many hours I wanted, and I said as many as possible, but she said they can only give me 20 HOURS!

Apparently they have a lot of people and they can only give out so many, which I can understand, but I've been waiting for MONTHS!!!

I should probably be grateful for what I get, but I am so worried about not getting into my program of choice that I wanted to maximize my chances in regards to observation hours. I wanted to get 40 to 50 hours in each setting, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to.

😡

 

[PTMattI]

maybe they can do you a favor and get those 40 hours you already gave them, and have them count as hours in PT?

 

[ptdpt]

How horrible, what a an injustice!!!! They can only give you 20 hours after working for them for months. I would ask someone else if it would be possible for you to get at least 40 hours. Who have you been speaking with? I would outline my concerns with the head of the volunteer dept.

 

[DPTHopeful921]

why dont you try a place like a nursing home that has a PT clinic in it? that could technically count as geriatric or inpatient, but not both on the same application

 

[Prsvranc10acity]

Is the place where you are volunteering at something you enjoy? If it is merely for PT observation hours, and it's not your favorite place in the world, I think 20 hours is sufficient. When speaking with an admissions adviser, he said that 20 hours in one setting is enough time for you to get a feel for that type of setting. They just want to make sure you know what you are getting into before possibly getting admitted to their program. So if you have 20 here, maybe 30 somewhere else, and find a setting that you really enjoy and rack up 100+ hours, I think it will show that you know what the profession is about and what you want to get into. The only drawback from getting too few observation hours is that they won't be able to provide a well written rec letter if you ask them for one. But seeing how they are only willing to give you 20 hours anyways, I don't think asking them for a rec letter would be the best idea

 

[ammonihah99]

I don't think they'll let me count the nearly 70+ hours I've already worked there because they were not PT related. Plus I wouldn't want to count them, all I was doing is sitting at the front desk directing visitors to rooms and delivering flowers.

I am not sure I want to complain to the volunteer resources coordinator, as she is the one I circumvented by calling the PT department directly. I don't know if that's offensive or not, but I don't really care, because I couldn't sit on my thumbs anymore. I will tell her about my new assignment, but I won't address my concerns, not with her anyway.

Eventually I will get around to observing at a skilled nursing facility or inpatient rehab center, but based on this website and other places, I was under the impression that acute inpatient hours were the most important ones to get, so I made that a top priority first.

I enjoy volunteering at the hospital, but in my limited experience, I feel like the volunteers are not treated very well. Like we're a burden. Things might change in IP PT, so we'll see how things go. I was hoping to stay just to show that I'm here for the long haul, not up and leaving when I get disinterested. I might not even like it so this might be a blessing in disguise, ha!

The strange thing is that the hospital made it clear during the volunteer application process that we were expected to make a commitment to volunteer for at least six months, which equates to about 100 hours of service at 4 hours per week. How are we supposed to fulfill that commitment if we only get 20 hours beyond the mandatory 40? Apparently by delaying our transfer placement until we rack up 80 hours at the front desk. Sheesh.

 

[djb051]

Hmm I wonder if that is pretty standard with hospitals saying that you can only get a max of 20 hours due to the amount of volunteers. I did some inpatient hours back in January, and the volunteer coordinator also said the same thing to me, that we could only get a max of 20 hours since they have a lot of students needing to shadow. It was just strange because I do not remember seeing any other volunteers in the rehab department on the days I was shadowing. I did not have to volunteer in the hospital before shadowing in the PT department though so I can see why you are frustrated. You could always just take as many hours that they are willing to give you and then look for inpatient hours at another hospital, if possible. That is what I plan on doing. You can also put your other 40 hours in the hospital in the other volunteer/extracurricular category of the PT application. Also, I think having only 20 hours for inpatient on your application is not bad. I know a lot of people that were accepted into PT schools with less inpatient hours or no inpatient hours at all. Good luck.

 

[ammonihah99]

If I get only 20 as they say, then I'll just call another PT department, inpatient or otherwise (there's a few). We have a children's hospital adjoining as well, I was going to go there anyway, I just didn't think it would only be after 5 weeks, ha.

Edit: You'd think the PTs would be super accommodating, as they have been through this process, I just don't get it! Maybe it just gets so old after a while.

 

[Azimuthal]

It's best to get your PT hours from different settings anyways. Maybe it's time to move on to another setting? I was lucky. My hospital limited my in-patient hours to 50 but allowed me to have as much out-patient I wanted. I'm still volunteering today.

 

[Corks]

I asked for 40 as well when I did it, but they said "lets be realistic, how about 25".

Anyway, long story short, after actually meeting the PT's there, and shadowing them for those 25, they said "how ever many more hours you need, feel free to come by ANY time!"

Just accept the 20, and ask from them 🙂

 

[kingsandmen]

Just thought i'd give the OP some perspective. I work at a Major Trauma hospital as an employee. Yet I was still only allowed one single day visit for inpatient, i.e eight hours. I'd be psyched for twenty hours. I had to go to multiple hospitals, which I actually thought was awesome, because every inpatient department runs things a little different. It also forced me to volunteer at a Rehab Hospital setting for inpatient hours, which turned out to be my favorite setting to shadow in and where I hope to work one day. I don't think the whole process should be a burden at all it's just to give you some perspective. Even after getting into schools I still volunteer weekly. My advice is after you get the twenty hours talk to the director about other inpatient sites you could shadow at.

 

[ammonihah99]

Yeah I probably should reserve my judgment until I actually get in and do the hours. Might turn out better than I anticipated. I just don't get the trade off of nearly 80 hours for 20.

 

[excitedPT]

it really depends where you volunteer. i was fortunate enough to volunteer for 3 weeks straight, 5 days a week, 8 hrs a day so i can complete my 100 hrs during winter break. but then, i was the only shadower in the rehab dept. you should try another hospital, if possible go straight to the rehab dept and skip the volunteer services.

 

[ammonihah99]

Yeah, next time I'm going to do that. I tried going by the book, but I learned my lesson.