Observation hours

[joannagutshall]

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Hi everyone! How early should I start working on observation hours? I am a current undergrad freshman, soon sophomore. I don't want to start too early, but I don't want to be scrambling to get a sufficient amount of hours if I wait too long. What is the average amount of observation hours that PT schools look for?

 

[HopefulDPT96]

Hi! Now would be the perfect time to start. It is never too early to start observing 🙂 That will give you a good amount of time to get diversity in your settings, which is something PT schools really look for. I would say a good amount of observation hours to shoot for is at least 100, but make sure they are in a variety of settings. Some schools require less, but more is always better because it demonstrates your commitment to the profession.

 

[soapdpt]

Like the first reply said, it's never too early! It also helps that you have a variety of settings that you've observed in. Not only does it show diversity on your application, but you'll learn a lot too, giving you a chance for questions to be answered by different PTs as well as the possibility of having some good letters of rec in your corner.

 

[easb]

Probably it's better if your observation hours are within 2 years prior to your application. PTs that you will observe will also need to write you a recommendation letter and maybe submit some information about you at the time you will be applying to PT schools, so they should remember who you are at least to do that.
Observation hours vary 80-200 depending on school. Many require at least 2 different settings. So try to do at least 1 outpatient, 1 inpatient. 50-100 h per setting should be enough for now.