Confused about observation settings

[ammonihah99]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I keep reading on this forum about what kinds of settings applicants have their observation hours in (othro, neuro, peds, women's health, etc.) but from what I read on PTCAS the observation settings are not categorized as such (acute, sub-acute, SNF, school, etc.). Even if someone has 300 hours in various outpatient ortho, neuro, and peds settings, according to PTCAS, it would technically only count for one observation setting right? Why the difference and which is more important?

 

[goyo1010]

I'm not that familiar with PTCAS as all Texas schools use their own system application system. I did do a little research, and although it will only allow you to input or select Acute Care, Rehab/Sub-Acute Rehab (Rehabilitation Hospital or Sub-Acute Rehabilitation), Extended Care Facility/Nursing Home/SNF, Outpatient clinic, School/Pre-school, Wellness/Prevention/Fitness, or Industrial/Occupational Health, PTCAS allows you to indicate the physical therapy specialty areas observed.

So, if you observed in a Rehabilitation Hospital, but shadowed a PT that did neuro rehab, then you could indicate that you observed neuro rehab. If the applicant only did outpatient, then it would count as only one setting, but multiple specialty areas. It is a rule of thumb, however, for the PT program applicant to do observation/volunteer hours in an acute or similar setting.

http://www.ptcas.org/PTCASInstructions_2011_12.pdf (see page 26)

 

[ammonihah99]

Gotcha. I didn't know that you could specify specialties in the actual application. Although, I still don't understand if it's better to have a variety of PT specialties, or a variety of observation settings.

I am on a waiting list right now to observe at a local hospital, but it has me wondering which specialties would be available to observe there. It would obviously be acute, but I don't know if there is wound care, or neuro or what. I know there is peds for sure, since a children's hospital is adjoining. Guess I'll have to find out, but I'll take what I can get.

I still have two more years so I want to get as many settings/specialties as possible, like 50 - 100 hours in every single one. I figure that everything else being equal, it can only tip the scales in my favor.

 

[Seatown87]

So obviously it will more beneficial to your experience if you can observe different settings (neuro, ortho, peds, ect).

However if you are worried about what schools look at you should have a variety of facilities. Ortho in one clinic may differ greatly from ortho at another clinic or from therapist to therapist.

Just focus on variety of all kinds. Inpatient experience is hard to get and a number of schools really like it when you have it. I applied to a school that required you to have inpatient exp. so I would reccomend try to get some of that.

 

[ammonihah99]

I read that inpatient/acute is the hardest to get so I started on that first. I thought I could put in my 40 hours in the front desk and get transferred no problem, but I'm on the "waiting list". The volunteer coordinator said that the pediatric department is easier to get into, but there's a waiting list and the adult program is just hard to get into in general. Which I'm guessing means they don't like volunteers observing them, which is weird because didn't all PTs have to volunteer at some point? You'd think there would be some kind of empathetic bond there. Whatever, I'll give the "waiting list" a few more weeks to show I'm patient and then I'll start playing hardball.

 

[Seatown87]

I read that inpatient/acute is the hardest to get so I started on that first. I thought I could put in my 40 hours in the front desk and get transferred no problem, but I'm on the "waiting list". The volunteer coordinator said that the pediatric department is easier to get into, but there's a waiting list and the adult program is just hard to get into in general. Which I'm guessing means they don't like volunteers observing them, which is weird because didn't all PTs have to volunteer at some point? You'd think there would be some kind of empathetic bond there. Whatever, I'll give the "waiting list" a few more weeks to show I'm patient and then I'll start playing hardball.

Thats what I found when I was doing my observation hours too. Some PTs are really nice about it and very welcoming to volunteers. Others for some reason aren't. Whats up with that?

 

[okramango]

I read that inpatient/acute is the hardest to get so I started on that first. I thought I could put in my 40 hours in the front desk and get transferred no problem, but I'm on the "waiting list". The volunteer coordinator said that the pediatric department is easier to get into, but there's a waiting list and the adult program is just hard to get into in general. Which I'm guessing means they don't like volunteers observing them, which is weird because didn't all PTs have to volunteer at some point? You'd think there would be some kind of empathetic bond there. Whatever, I'll give the "waiting list" a few more weeks to show I'm patient and then I'll start playing hardball.

I went through this, too, when looking for inpatient hours. I finally contacted the rehab departments at hospitals directly (instead of going through volunteer coordinators), and was able to start shadowing right away after working it out directly with one of the PTs.