Acute Care Shadowing

[olivia_PT]

So I know that completing observation hours in in-patient acute care is necessary for my application. I've been doing hours in a SNF, but I'm having a hard time finding any hospitals that I could shadow in. Do you think that it's okay to just have in-patient SNF hours or should I really push to get some hours in a hospital setting?

 

[Bones26]

It doesn't necessary need to be acute care, but most schools want to see some diversity in settings. For example, I believe my school wanted a minimum of 25 hours in each of three different settings (I'm fuzzy on the hours, but I'm certain about the number of settings). Typically it's easier to obtain shadowing/volunteer opportunities in outpatient clinics. I would reach out to that setting next.

 

[foodislife]

Hospitals can be a bit harder to get into; it took me a while, but my shadowing experiences in Trauma recovery were pretty amazing and lightening. It's a very different place than SNF and Outpatient. I personally loved it because there was a huge human side to your treatment and the PTs had a big presence. ICU was not quite as exciting for the PTs because many of the patients were unconscious... but it was still very good to see.

I would encourage your to try and call the volunteer department at a local hospital and let them know you are shadowing for PT school and specifically want to be in trauma recovery. That's how I got my shadowing hours. I first had to become a volunteer, which was fast-tracked beacuse I was applying to PT school, then I could shadow pretty much as much as I wanted. I got free lunches too!

 

[DesertPT]

There are a couple of schools that specifically require acute care, but not many at all. But I still think observing this setting is highly recommendable as it is a setting a lot of applicants lack. You just have to keep making phone calls and emails to hospitals in your area and try to figure out what there process is. Some hospitals have a formal observation experience program that you have to apply for, some don't and there isn't any real structure, and some don't allow observers at all. You just have to be patient and persistent, it is an annoying part of the process to be sure.