Agreed, it is usually SNFs that do offfer these opportunities. If your interest is geriatrics, and you are willing to commit to the time required and/or willing to re-pay if you want out, then go for it. With student loan debt of the DPT, anything helps; you may not see the difference over the short-term, but will notice the difference in the long run.
Personal experience: I worked in a SNF for 2.5 years after PT school. I enjoyed working with the patients and the challenges and accomplishments of each patient; I hated the constant push for "minutes, minutes, minutes" in order to land an UH RUG and get reimbursed maximally. When push came to shove, I got out b/c ethically I could not see pushing frail, elderly patients in order to get minutes. Not all SNFs are like this, but it is a business too. While I worked in a SNF, I kept up-to-date with orthopedics and manual therapy through conference, journals, continuing education, etc.
If you are open to living in rural and under-served areas, contact some of those hospitals and/or clinics. I'm at a rural hospital-based OP clinic. For every year of service, the hospital pays a large chunk towards my students loans. Also, cost of living is a lot lower than city-life, the 401(k) match is 6%, so it's more money in the bank and toward student loans for me.
Cheers!
