Variation in Observation Hours

[KingsFan10]

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Hello, everyone!

I'm a second year college student who had the fortunate opportunity to figure out what he wants to do with his life (after injuring himself, of course). The realization came back in February, and I've been doing massive research on just about everything physical therapy related since then. Thanks to sites like the SDN, many of my questions have been answered, but there are of course some that remain (and more that will come up as the days go by, I'm sure).

My most pressing question: It is clear that a variation in observation hours is more beneficial and important than a large load of outpatient, but is the variation in terms of settings (i.e. inpatient, outpatient, SFN, etc.), specialties (geriatrics, pediatric, orthopedic, etc.), or both?

Second question: How would someone know what specialty a setting serves? For instance, I am going to start observing in an inpatient environment in a hospital soon, but would I need to find out if that refers to orthopedics or geriatrics (or any other specialties), or is inpatient a setting that serves everyone? Would I just ask what specialty the setting caters to?

The differences between the settings and specialties are quite new to me and still cause some confusion, so bear with me if any of my terms are used incorrectly, and thanks for the assistance! I've looked through many recent threads regarding observation hours to get a good reading on the issue, but have not found my answer yet, so I apologize if I have missed many threads already covering this.

 

[HeatherDPT]

I would recommend starting a PTCAS account so you can access the observation hours section - the settings and populations are broken down very well there 🙂

 

[Kuhdaytee]

Can you make the account for free? I won't be applying for another year, but I'm curious as to what the app looks like.

 

[hongryhippo]

yes, you can definitely set up an account through PTCAS free of charge. it's great that you're starting so early!

another thing to keep in mind - some schools will only count a setting that you have hours in if you complete a certain amount of hours there. For example, Western University of Health Sciences will only count a setting if you have at least 40 hours there.

also, i may be wrong in saying this, but to my knowledge it seems that it is a variety of settings (although a variety of specialties would be great too!). It seems that on PTCAS they have listed a variety of "settings or facilities is recommended" or "hours must be completed in 2 or more clinical settings or facilities" instead of "a variety of specialties".

best of luck!

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http://christina-pt.blogspot.com

 

[Kuhdaytee]

thank you! 🙂

 

[DesertPT]

Just as an illustrative example if you were gonna have say 3 places you get hours, having a geriatric inpatient, geriatric outpatient and geriatric acute setting would be a lot better than having a pediatric orthopedic, geriatric orthopedic and sports orthopedic.

With all the various specialties of PT and the different types of settings in which PT takes place, there winds up being way more permutations than you could possibly ever observe. But imagine if you were going to go to 3 or 4 places you would want to mix up that bag of proverbial scrabble tiles as well as possible to get a good, broad smattering. For example, acute care neurological rehab, SNF (inpatient geriatric), a general pediatric PT clinic, and an outpatient ortho office would be a really good variety of practice settings and specialties without trying to go to observe at a dozen different places.