Counting Obs Hours as a Tech/Aide

[Watson27]

Here's a question for individuals who have worked in a clinic as a PT Aide or Rehab Tech.

What's your method for counting the hours you work as "observation hours?"

I know some people say, "Eight hours at work = eight observation hours," while others say, "Eight hours at work, but we had a patient cancel, and I sat in on a meeting, and I waited around doing nothing while a PT wrote a treatment note, so I technically only observed 5 hours of patient treatment."

So far I have always maintained a daily log of how many hours I spent assisting with treatment sessions, which is not 100% of my time at work. Is keeping a record like this typical, or do you guys just estimate that in a year of working 20 hrs/week, 52wks x 20hr/wk = 1040 hrs?

The reason I ask is that we have volunteers that come in through the volunteer services department of our hospital, and they rarely observe direct patient treatment, yet they are allowed to count their hours cleaning and tidying as observation hours. This makes me feel like I am selling myself short by not counting the hours that I do similar tasks.

Does "observation" mean only patient treatment, or any of the daily happenings in a PT clinic? I don't want PTCAS definitions, I want to know what you guys actually think.

p.s. After lurking for over a year, this is my first post! I'll be applying this cycle and have a few questions, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me!

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[DPT41]

To me this is all relevant to the profession and should be considered as valid observation hours.

"Eight hours at work, but we had a patient cancel, and I sat in on a meeting, and I waited around doing nothing while a PT wrote a treatment note, so I technically only observed 5 hours of patient treatment."

In my opinion it is good experience to see what a PT does when a patient no-shows, as well as the paperwork side of the profession... This way you know exactly what your getting yourself into in the real world.

And I have no clue if my opinion matches with PTCAS, so don't hold me to it lol.

 

[Kuhdaytee]

They count! As long as there was a physical therapist around, count the hours! There's a separate section for work hours vs. volunteer hours, but they're all observation, even if you were just doing office tasks or cleaning. Think of observation as observation of the profession, not just observation of treatments.