Patient-related activites

[MJHUSKERS]

During your observation or volunteer hours with PT's, what type of patient activities did you get to observe or do?

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[Cronos]

Last semester I honestly didn't get to do much as I was only able to volunteer for 4 hours at a time, which didn't give the therapists too many options for me other than the usual watch and talk with the patients. There was one patient though that they pretty much let me be in charge of which was sweet. They taught me what to focus on, what to make sure to look for, what each activity on the chart was, ect.

To see that patient go from struggling to being almost 100% unnoticable that there is/was a problem was thrilling.

 

[Akiramay]

The hands-on activities that I got to do were stretching patients, holding a patient while she walked side to side, and throwing a ball back and forth with a woman with balance issues. It doesn't sound like much but ANY contact with patients other than just talking with them and observing the PT work with them is AMAZING!

 

[xMerryx]

Mine was similar to the post above, but it was in a pediatric setting. I got to observe a around 3 or 4 adult patients, but mainly they were chlidren with developmental disorders. I got to help the therapist stretch ONE patient ONCE and I was so excited, and nervous! usually I would hold them depending on the movement, reach the patient or therapist something (toys, weights) and throw a ball back and forth) I loved it because boy! you really have to be creative to get/keep a kid's attention!

 

[WillWords]

I just did 30 hours of inpatient PT observation--and I quickly learned that this type of PT is not for me. Basically, I watched the therapist help get patients out of bed and walk them around a little.

The time I spent in the ortho PT, they had me cleaning the tables and making hot packs for the patients. Yes, I know it sounds thrilling, but I have to think that your internships will be relative in nature, some being fun and interesting, and others being tedious and boring. Mine so far has been the latter.

 

[PTtoBe]

I worked in outpatient in a subacute SNF type of environment (basically where geriatrics got discharged to from hospital, where they would stay for a few weeks before being discharged to home). My experience was extremely hands-on.

I worked one-on-one with patients several times a week, including transferring them to/from different machines, beds, and wheel chairs. I would take them through different exercises through individualized programs customized by PTs. I'd generally try to increase their exercises over the weeks so they'd ideally progress. I pretty much befriended all of them, and even visited a few later on when I was no longer working there.

This experience was really valuable, and I consider myself really lucky to have been given that much leeway as a rehab aide. I have a grasp as a result on what type of dynamic you can expect with outpatients and their various conditions and personalities, and some of the things to be aware of. I have yet to really get into the troubleshooting aspect of PT, though, and this is the part that I imagine grad school and lab experience will bolster substantially.

Edit: Note the above was employment, not observation/volunteer. For observation/volunteer, in a hospital I helped a bit with ambulation (as many have mentioned) but mostly followed PTs around and stayed out of the way. In a sports outpatient clinic I pretty much just wiped down surfaces and talked a lot with patients and staff.

 

[ptstudenttobe]

I did my observation hours as an aide in an outpatient ortho clinic, and basically was able to work with patients guiding them through their exercises. We had a lot of opportunities as we also were able to set them in and out of modalities such as estim, ultrasound etc.