Observation hours question

[tiniestdancer]

I am a sophomore at an undergrad college and have a ton of questions! Anyway I have completed my observation hours that are required for the pt school I'm planning to attend. My question is how should I record these?

Thank you so much for help!!

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[johncronejr]

Be sure to record them as different areas, such as...Inpatient, Outpatient, Acute, Pediatrics, Nursing facility, etc....

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

In addition to what John said, make sure you keep the contact info for the PT you shadowed (full name, email and/or phone number). When it's time to apply, you'll most likely need the hours verified by the PT you shadowed, and to do so you still need to be able to contact them. Since you won't be applying for at least 2 more years, make sure you don't lose that info

Also keep yourself updated with the school(s) you're interested in applying to...since it's 2 years away, they could change the number/type of hours required. For example, one of the schools I applied to used to not require verification or a certain number of hours during my senior year of college, and then when I applied that following summer they changed it to 40 hours and verification required. Since you're way ahead of the game too, try to get some other observation experiences in settings you haven't been exposed to yet...it'll strengthen your application and give you a better idea of what else PTs do. Plus, you may decide later you want to apply to other schools, and they might require a certain setting.

Good luck!

 

[francium]

I agree with everyone else's advice! Also, what I did was create a Word document and put a table for Date, Time In, Time Out, Department, Supervising PT. Then I added up the hours for each department at the end and asked the supervising PTs to sign at the bottom to verify I was actually there.

 

[hookem148]

Bumping this thread since there's a lot of good info in here.

I am two years away from applying myself and just came across an opportunity to observe a local PT. Do the observation hours need to be annotated in any particular way? I can make and print out a spreadsheet to record my time in/time out and just have the PT sign it at the end of my time there per francium's advice.

So then is it purely just a matter of keeping a good record of the hours I observed, and then making sure that the PT is willing to verify the number of hours if/when the PT schools call? Is there anything else that I'm missing?

Thanks

 

[hookem148]

Talked to the office manager and I start observation Thursday morning. Does the above info cover everything I need?

Thx

 

[corkscrew]

hookem148, that sounds about right...the admin coordinator where I volunteered had me sign in/out each shift and gave me a copy of my hours at the end of the semester. I would also ask the PT for his/her email address to input into PTCAS when the time rolls around. Anyone who's gone through this please correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that PTCAS will then email the PT directly for verification.

I have a related question... I'm not applying til the next app cycle (July 2012) and have about 35 hours outpatient observation and will be doing inpatient next semester (the hospital system I'm volunteering at only allows 1 volunteer shift per week at a single setting). BUT at the outpatient clinic, I observed a different PT each week. Very educational, but do I have to list EACH of the PTs in PTCAS to verify my observation hours? I'm under no illusions that they'll remember me, let alone my hours, by the time I get to enter the info in PTCAS next summer....

Any advice/info would be much appreciated

 

[pjr75]

corkscrew- at the outpatient place where I shadowed there was one PT who was "in charge" of the volunteers and PT students. I only entered his name into PTCAS and had him verify all of my hours for that setting. You might want to find one PT from the outpatient clinic and ask them now if they will be willing to verify all of your hours when the time comes.

 

[corkscrew]

Thanks pjr75, I'll try that!

A bit unrelated, but what is the standard for thanking the PTs you observed (as a volunteer)? Is a verbal thanks after each session you spent observing them acceptable, or is it expected to send a thank you card (à la post-interview or similar)?

 

[jblil]

A verbal thanks is fine. I've been shadowing and helping a couple of PTs for a long time (over a year), and they thank me at the end of each session because I don't mind doing all of the grunt work. Anyway, try to develop a good rapport with them, it will be very useful in the long run.