Where to shadow an OT on the weekend?!?!

[otdude]

Hey everyone!

I work full time from 7:00am-4:00pm Monday-Friday. This makes it extremely difficult to shadow an OT. Does anyone know of a good place to shadow an OT on the weekend? I know that this is limited...but there must be something!

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[PreOTfromLB]

Hey everyone!

I work full time from 7:00am-4:00pm Monday-Friday. This makes it extremely difficult to shadow an OT. Does anyone know of a good place to shadow an OT on the weekend? I know that this is limited...but there must be something!

Where do you live?

 

[otdude]

West Michigan

 

[veggieswirl]

Try going to a large public county hospital or a teaching hospital. At county USC in Southern California, the OTs are there are on the weekend. Also, try a nursing home. Since you're just looking for shadowing, there's a lot of hand clinics that have some night hours as late as 8 because some OTs have two jobs. Some pediatric places may have hours on weekends too because parents find it more convenient. Try the same places you'd try if you could do weekdays, minus schools. So try hospitals, private pediatric therapy clinics, nursing homes, and hand clinics. If you have OT programs or COTA programs in your area you could try speaking with them as well

 

[Shelby029]

I had this problem, definitely not the overachiever in this category. I ended up taking off work for about 20 hours of the observation. The rest I ended up squeezing it in.

Is your job flexible at all---like working later if you come in later, or leaving early if you come in early? You probably will not find many places to shadow on the weekends. I would just start calling places and letting them know hours your available to do so, most places pretty much let me pick when I would come in. Inpatient facilities (rehab and LTC), and hospitals would be your best bet. Clinics are typically 8-5 from my experience.

 

[shellabie]

Unless you are looking to observe only at an outpatient facility or at a school, I really don't think you will have a problem finding therapists to observe on the weekends. I've noticed that people seem to think that folks who work in the rehab field tend to only keep "banker's hours," but this really is not the case. The healthcare wheel spins around 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Some physicians will prescribe therapy 6 times per week... and that means that Saturday and/or Sunday fall into play. All of the acute care hospitals around here have OT/PT staff that work on the weekends and I did 5 hours of observation at a SNF on a Saturday. I was actually ASKED by the therapist at the SNF if I could come in on a Saturday as opposed to a weekday because the case load would be slightly less and that would allow her to provide me with a more in-depth experience. I learned a TON that particular day.

Obviously there are only two days on the weekend to slot yourself into and OT/PT departments are typically not running at full staff on Saturday/Sunday. So just make sure that when you contact a facility, you are aware of the fact that it might take a bit longer for them to be able to work you into their schedule.