What Exactly Constitutes Volunteer Hours?

[ibeliever]

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Im about to start work at a sports medicine institute place. The main doctor is a chiropractor, but there are physical therapist here as well. So my questions are:

1.) are volunteer hours only hours I work under the physical therapist and not the chiropractor?
2.) If i am also helping out at the front desk, are volunteer hours only the time spent shadowing the physical therapist and not at the front desk?
3.) I am not sure if i will be getting paid or not. Does this change thing?


Thanks!

 

[GMA2013]

The hours only count if you are shadowing a physical therapist. Working under a chiropractor won't count as this. Paid hours will still count as long as you are shadowing the PT

 

[easb]

ibeliever, you should talk to PT there and see which hours s/he will count as your observation hours. I was doing work at the front desk and now I consider it as the waste of my time (despite that they verified my front desk hours as observation hours and I got paid): I did not see much what was going on in the gym.

 

[portlandpt]

ibeliever, you should talk to PT there and see which hours s/he will count as your observation hours. I was doing work at the front desk and now I consider it as the waste of my time (despite that they verified my front desk hours as observation hours and I got paid): I did not see much what was going on in the gym.

I worked at a front desk almost entirely. ALL of those hours counted (hundreds of them). Yes, I would have liked to see more of what was happening in the gym but the office experience was valuable. Learning about how administration and insurance works will give me an edge over my peers once I get out of school. Plus the connections you make will be awesome! I have met and become friends with CEO's, lawyers, and doctors that were once patients because I was good at providing services to them (emails, help with paperwork, etc)

 

[baday1]

I agree with portlandpt. When I was working on my observation hours I shadowed a PT as well as work in the front desk and the Director of the clinic was very adamant about me using those front office hours as part of my shadowing experience. Physical therapy is much more than what goes on in the gym, there is alot of work "behind the scenes" that takes place in the front office. Whether it be scheduling, interpreting and explaining insurance to a patient, or learning policy and procedure for collecting payment; everything in the front office is tied to physical therapy somehow.

 

[ibeliever]

Turns out there are no physical therapist there except the one chiropractor...but, he says that they are licensed to provide physical therapy (?) and that they service all different types of people with progressive physical therapy methods. Also, even if I may not get hours for this, do you guys think it will be good experience none the less? Being in this type of environment? Thanks.

 

[jsmurray]

Turns out there are no physical therapist there except the one chiropractor...but, he says that they are licensed to provide physical therapy (?) and that they service all different types of people with progressive physical therapy methods. Also, even if I may not get hours for this, do you guys think it will be good experience none the less? Being in this type of environment? Thanks.

I feel like I have the same kind of job you are describing. I am a "Rehab Therapist" at a Chiropractor and Progressive Rehab Office, with only a Chiro there (no PT). I also have my CPT (as well as my BS in Exercise Science with some ATEP courses), so I am more involved with Exercise Prescription and manual therapy/soft tissue. I highly doubt physical therapy schools would take these as hours though because Chiro is so looked down upon in the PT world. I still think it would be a great experience working with patients, learning medical charting, running x-rays, etc. I would still do it.

 

[okramango]

Turns out there are no physical therapist there except the one chiropractor...but, he says that they are licensed to provide physical therapy (?) and that they service all different types of people with progressive physical therapy methods. Also, even if I may not get hours for this, do you guys think it will be good experience none the less? Being in this type of environment? Thanks.

A chiropractor is definitely not licensed to provide physical therapy, unless they went to PT school and passed the PT boards. Unfortunately, it seems many chiropractors claim to practice "physical therapy" or "physiotherapy", by which they often mean ice packs, e-stim, ultrasound, and some exercises. Unfortunately, many people, including other health professionals, still think of physical therapy simply as a set of modalities, rather than as an entire profession, which leads to other professionals claiming to practice PT. This claim is illegal in many states.

 

[easb]

ibeliever, when your observation hours are verified on PTCAS, there is a requirement to include the liscense number of the PT who verifies the hours. If your chiropractor does not have a PT liscence, then s/he cannot verify your PT hours. So that experience there may be good for you personally, but I think it is better if you find a PT office where you will also get your observation hours which schools need.

 

[NewTestament]

Turns out there are no physical therapist there except the one chiropractor...but, he says that they are licensed to provide physical therapy (?) and that they service all different types of people with progressive physical therapy methods. Also, even if I may not get hours for this, do you guys think it will be good experience none the less? Being in this type of environment? Thanks.

Then these hours definitely don't qualify as "observation hours" because you're not observing a licensed physical therapist. DC's like to say they practice physical therapy, but they really don't. Go find a clinic where you can observe DPT's and PT's. Otherwise, I don't think any school would accept these hours, especially when you take into account the antagonism PT schools have towards DC's.

Kevin