General Admissions & OTCAS What to classify OT volunteer/shadow experience as on OTCAS

[ot.3277]

I have been volunteering/shadowing at the Rehab Institute of Chicago for almost a year now and each area requires 100hrs of volunteering on each floor before you can move onto another. So far I have done 3 floors (pediatrics, orthotics/prosthetics, and neuro/stroke) all inpatient. This summer I plan to volunteer in another setting, possibly outpatient research or TBI, and next fall I have an internship there doing one other setting I'm not sure of yet. When I apply this summer would I have to list these all as "Rehabilitation" or would I list them as "Other" and specify? Each floor I volunteered on were at separate times with separate OTs.
I have also shadowed in other settings including hand therapy, school, & assisted living. This summer I am set up to observe in an outpatient pediatrics facility, hippotherapy, and acute hospital

On OTCAS it says to choose the setting to which you observed/volunteered. If any one could help me out as to which setting goes where from what I listed. The categories are;

• Children and Youth
• Work and Industry
• Rehabilitation
• Health and Wellness
• Mental Health
• Productive Aging
• Other

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it!

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[mull015]

How did you set up shadowing at RIC?

 

[ot.3277]

How did you set up shadowing at RIC?

The other locations outside of RIC were shadowing/observing. RIC was mostly volunteering under the OTs, PTs, and SLPs, but during the volunteer interview they count it all as one area since they work closely together. If you go to their website you should see the volunteer sign up

 

[mull015]

How much time did you get to spend with the OTs vs other therapies?

 

[idontdance]

I think you can do whatever you want here--it's not going to impact your chances. If it were me, I would list it once for the shadowing and once for the internship (since those are different things, right?) Most likely the people reviewing your application will be familiar with the hospital and understand the range of experience you have from the 100's of hours you've spent there. OTCAS does ask you to put in the supervising OT, so if you had one supervisor for all 100 hours then maybe it is easier to separate them out. I actually shadowed at a rehab hospital (and rotated through floors under numerous OTs) after I submitted my application, so I just emailed all my schools with the update. If I had to use OTCAS, I would probably have picked one of the more senior OTs to include on the application as the "supervising OT".

Also, just my personal opinion, but I think it looks better to have one setting with 500 hours instead of the same setting listed 5 times with 100 hours. I don't think redundancy is appreciated when the review panels have to sift through countless apps. Plus, you don't have to worry about not having diverse enough shadowing experience because you listed 6 other settings after the rehab hospital, lol

Have you considered talking about the rehab in your personal statement?

 

[ot.3277]

I think you can do whatever you want here--it's not going to impact your chances. If it were me, I would list it once for the shadowing and once for the internship (since those are different things, right?) Most likely the people reviewing your application will be familiar with the hospital and understand the range of experience you have from the 100's of hours you've spent there. OTCAS does ask you to put in the supervising OT, so if you had one supervisor for all 100 hours then maybe it is easier to separate them out. I actually shadowed at a rehab hospital (and rotated through floors under numerous OTs) after I submitted my application, so I just emailed all my schools with the update. If I had to use OTCAS, I would probably have picked one of the more senior OTs to include on the application as the "supervising OT".

Also, just my personal opinion, but I think it looks better to have one setting with 500 hours instead of the same setting listed 5 times with 100 hours. I don't think redundancy is appreciated when the review panels have to sift through countless apps. Plus, you don't have to worry about not having diverse enough shadowing experience because you listed 6 other settings after the rehab hospital, lol

Have you considered talking about the rehab in your personal statement?

Thanks your advice was really helpful! I plan to talk about it in my statement, since I'm interested in stroke rehab

 

[ot.3277]

How much time did you get to spend with the OTs vs other therapies?

It really depends on the floor. Some floors you have to go out of your way to get to know them, while on other floors it is really easy to get to know them. I'd say of the floors I've been on peds was easy to get to know the OTs, but the other floors were also great but the PTs need more assistance

 

[idontdance]

I'd put TBI under rehab and hands as "other". But the rest looks good

 

[mull015]

It really depends on the floor. Some floors you have to go out of your way to get to know them, while on other floors it is really easy to get to know them. I'd say of the floors I've been on peds was easy to get to know the OTs, but the other floors were also great but the PTs need more assistance

Hmm. I live on the border of Illinois and wisconsin and am planning on moving to chicago within the next few months and I'm trying to figure out how I want to go about getting more hours. How quickly did you get hours? I'm really not interested in working with SLPs or PTs as I've done this in the past.