What were your first impressions the first time you volunteered?

[8MoreReps]

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Did it click and you knew at that point it was what you want to do?

I observed at an outpatient clinic for a few hours last week and it was okay but I didn't feel as enthusiastic as I thought I would. I still plan to observe more hours and continue on, but I was wondering how you guys initially felt. I didn't expect so much hands on treatment. I expected more exercise related training and minimal direct touching and massaging. I am not really a touchy feely type of guy, but I suppose it is something you get used to. I would think most patients would prefer a female over a male in this instance, but maybe I am wrong.

 

[GB78]

> I didn't expect so much hands on treatment. I expected more exercise related >training and minimal direct touching and massaging.

I did most of my volunteering in the rehab department of a skilled nursing facility: it was hands-on treatment over 90% of the time (and it's possibly still an understatement 🙂 ). In an outpatient clinic where I volunteered quite briefly, I'd say it was hands-on at least 50% of the time. However, in the same outpatient clinic there was one physical therapist who worked mostly with injured athletes and in his case there was very little direct touching. It really does depend on who you work with - there are so many different PT environments now. For instance, a PT I observed also does hippotherapy! I'd never even heard about hippotherapy before talking to that PT... (In case you haven't heard about it either, you may want to check it out - http://www.nceft.org/index_programs-services.html .)