Does patient care experience outside of physical therapy volunteering/shadowing matter?

[preptwithaquestion]

Hi!
I will be applying to PT programs next year and I was wondering if admission committees care if an applicant has patient care experience outside of shadowing or volunteering at physical therapy offices (in addition to the required shadowing and volunteering). For example if I worked as a certified nurse assistant would it be seen as a positive towards my application?

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[dropping101]

I would think that you would need to have direct PT observation/aide experience. All of the schools i applied to on PTCAS on outside have exact instruction that I needed observational hours in physical therapy from specific settings pertaining to PT. Thats how you would also get PT letters of rec.

 

[preptwithaquestion]

I would think that you would need to have direct PT observation/aide experience. All of the schools i applied to on PTCAS on outside have exact instruction that I needed observational hours in physical therapy from specific settings pertaining to PT. Thats how you would also get PT letters of rec.

Thanks! To clarify, I know that you need to have shadowing and volunteer experience at PT offices, I mean in addition to doing that does other patient care have any impact on an application.

 

[dropping101]

It definitely wouldn't be detrimental to your application, I guess it would show that you were willing to make sure PT was right for you.

 

[DesertPT]

Hi!
I will be applying to PT programs next year and I was wondering if admission committees care if an applicant has patient care experience outside of shadowing or volunteering at physical therapy offices (in addition to the required shadowing and volunteering). For example if I worked as a certified nurse assistant would it be seen as a positive towards my application?

If you already work as a CNA you don't need to give up your job. But don't go out and become a CNA to try to beef up your app to PT school. Almost no bang for your buck there. Experience in PT is what counts. Anything else is just a nice extracurricular to throw in. But like I said, that doesn't mean you need to give up a current job or even have a PT tech job or something similar to be able to get into PT school. Tthose jobs are good but not mandatory...observation hours in a wide variety of setting is what helps the most...breadth is almost always more important than depth for PT experiences.

 

[preptwithaquestion]

If you already work as a CNA you don't need to give up your job. But don't go out and become a CNA to try to beef up your app to PT school. Almost no bang for your buck there. Experience in PT is what counts. Anything else is just a nice extracurricular to throw in. But like I said, that doesn't mean you need to give up a current job or even have a PT tech job or something similar to be able to get into PT school. Tthose jobs are good but not mandatory...observation hours in a wide variety of setting is what helps the most...breadth is almost always more important than depth for PT experiences.

This is good to know. Thanks!

 

[DesertPT]

This is good to know. Thanks!

No problem 🙂

Have you done any observation hours yet? You might want to think about getting started if you haven't. Outpatient hours aren't as much of a rush cuz those are easy, but I would start working now to get acute care hours set up. Those are the ones adcoms love to see the most cuz they are hard to get. Other types of inpatient care such as rehab are great to have too.

Setting up a 20 hour acute care PT observation experience at one of the large teaching hospitals where I live was a 2 month long process. I ended up getting it done on time, but only by a few weeks. So don't put yourself through that undue stress!