Other OT-Related Information Shadowing/Observation Hours Question

[dnh]

I'm going to be shadowing over the summer and will be applying to about 10 schools. How does everyone log their hours? Is it as simple as signing in and out and getting someone to sign off on this and then sending this with my application? I'm just not sure how to go about this and I don't want to do it the wrong way and not be able to have them count. Thanks for any information.

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[Husky19]

I'm going to be shadowing over the summer and will be applying to about 10 schools. How does everyone log their hours? Is it as simple as signing in and out and getting someone to sign off on this and then sending this with my application? I'm just not sure how to go about this and I don't want to do it the wrong way and not be able to have them count. Thanks for any information.

Hi! So, it really depends on the schools you're applying to and the facilities you shadow at. For example, I shadowed at 3 places last summer, one I just signed into a notebook when I came in and when I left, one I had to create my own sheet and have it signed by an OT every day I was there, and the other I also had my own sign in sheet that they kept there that they signed every time I was there.

As for making sure the hours count, for most schools, you just have to fill out the section on OTCAS with all the information about the facilities and who your supervisor was and total number of hours. Some schools made me fill out a form that I had to get signed, documenting my hours and then scanning that to OTCAS, but that was only like one or two out of the 15 I applied to. So, my advice is to definitely keep track of the hours on your own, but unless your facility or a school requires it, you wont need to get anything signed off. And start checking now all the requirements of you schools because I have seen some funky requirements for some schools, so just make sure you're prepared!

Hope this helps and good luck! 🙂

 

[Thughey]

I'm going to be shadowing over the summer and will be applying to about 10 schools. How does everyone log their hours? Is it as simple as signing in and out and getting someone to sign off on this and then sending this with my application? I'm just not sure how to go about this and I don't want to do it the wrong way and not be able to have them count. Thanks for any information.

2 of my schools I applied to required that my hours were signed and verified by my supervisor. So I suggest checking your schools requirements when it comes to observation hours!

 

[Baileytexas]

I would recommend keeping track of the hours and days you go in your phone and then making an excel spreadsheet and have your OT sign off every few weeks or at the end of your time there. Mostly depends on preference and see if the school has any specific sheets they need signed!

 

[future_OT6]

None of my schools required verification beyond what is already in OTCAS, so I tracked my hours on my own spreadsheet. I also HIGHLY suggest that as you track your daily hours, write down some notes about what you did and what you learned. This will be very helpful when you're writing your personal statement.

 

[sourpatch22]

I made up a one page form that I gave to each place to keep track of my hours. Some of the schools I applied to had specific requirements about what would count and some didn't, but I just submitted the same form to everyone. The form basically listed:

-facility name and location
-dates and total hours of observation
- checkboxes for type of facility (school, hospital inpatient, etc)
-a comment space for the OT to write a few sentences about the work I observed
-a space for the OT to fill out contact information and sign off

This may have been overkill, but I shadowed several OTs in different kinds of facilities, and I wanted documentation that easily reflected that. As an added bonus, some of the OTs used the comment section to write nice things, which in a way acted like extra recommendations! Obviously there's no way to know how much that helped me, but it didn't hurt.