Having trouble finding different types of physical therapists to shadow

[preptwithaquestion]

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Currently I am focusing on finding a variety of physical therapy specialties to follow for observation hours. I have 30 hours at a practice that treated a lot of sports related injuries and 30 hours at a general ortho practice. I also will be getting hours at a geriatric facility in the near future.

However beyond these areas of physical therapy it has been very difficult to find therapists who strictly work with a certain type of population. There are a lot of physical therapists in my area who claim to have experience with neurological or pediatric physical therapy but their office does not cater solely to these types of patients.

In order to have neuro or pediatric observation hours do you have to go to a practice that only deals with these patients? What about offices that offer neuro programs but they have several other types of care as well?

Thanks!

 

[katelly]

As a prePT student/future applicant, my impression is that it doesn't have to be at a specialized clinic, and that the benefit of going to different places is seeing different people work with their own unique approaches and strengths. I would just specify to the PT or clinic that you are particularly interested in seeing those specialities, they would probably have you come in on days that they have more of those clients, or work specifically with the specialist.
I think the one thing that is important and required by a lot of schools is that at least some of the hours be at an acute care facility.

 

[DjT3kN]

Try to find a rehab center hospital... the inpatient hospital I volunteered at had different unit floors. For example, 1st floor was pediatric and TBI units. 2nd floor was hip and knee replacements. And finally, 3rd floor (where I spent most of my hours in) was the spinal cord injury/neuro facility. I was fortunate to gain so many hours at the TBI and spinal cord injury units for my inpatient hours. I'd suggest to look for any rehab center hospitals and volunteer there.

 

[DesertPT]

Agreed with above, start working on getting hospital experiences. Acute and rehab settings are both great. Acute is generally the hardest to get set up in, but is great to have as a lot of applicants lack this setting. Look for some past threads on the subject, there have been quite a few.

 

[tweaze]

Try to find a rehab center hospital... the inpatient hospital I volunteered at had different unit floors. For example, 1st floor was pediatric and TBI units. 2nd floor was hip and knee replacements. And finally, 3rd floor (where I spent most of my hours in) was the spinal cord injury/neuro facility. I was fortunate to gain so many hours at the TBI and spinal cord injury units for my inpatient hours. I'd suggest to look for any rehab center hospitals and volunteer there.

Second this. I shadowed at a hospital that had its rehab center across the street from the hospital proper. It was an outpatient setting, but I got to observe a lot of neuro, as well as lymph, pelvic health, and hand therapy. The OTs and SLPs were on the same floor, so I was exposed to a wide range of rehab while there.

Also, I let the PT know at one of the clinics I shadowed at that I was particularly interested in seeing pediatric and aqua, and she would check her schedule each week and see what she had, and sometimes I came in just to observe the one patient and get those hours. You don't need a ton.

 

[emespt]

Try school system. Its not a very popular observation site (from what I've seen) and can be quite different from an outpatient pediatric clinic, depending on the school. Since it wasn't listed online, it was hard for me to find which schools had therapists, so I called a director's number on the school districts website and was put into contact with two schools. One school's entire population was special needs children- very interesting. If you know of any schools like that in the area, I would call them directly.

I also searched for specializations around my area, like women's health and aquatic, which were based in outpatient clinics. Since I already had plenty of hours in a general outpatient clinic, I just came in to observe whenever a PT had the highest volume of the population I wanted to see.

 

[preptwithaquestion]

Try school system. Its not a very popular observation site (from what I've seen) and can be quite different from an outpatient pediatric clinic, depending on the school. Since it wasn't listed online, it was hard for me to find which schools had therapists, so I called a director's number on the school districts website and was put into contact with two schools. One school's entire population was special needs children- very interesting. If you know of any schools like that in the area, I would call them directly.

I also searched for specializations around my area, like women's health and aquatic, which were based in outpatient clinics. Since I already had plenty of hours in a general outpatient clinic, I just came in to observe whenever a PT had the highest volume of the population I wanted to see.

Thanks for this advice! I will look into it.