Time between volunteering and applying

[JamesAGould]

I am switching from a career in Engineering to PT. I have a 3.7 undergrad GPA and will be taking Anatomy and Physiology this summer to complete my pre-req's. I have a lot of free time between now and when summer classes start and will be volunteering with a home health company under a PT to get my minimum of 200 hours completed before the application deadline.

I know they look at the total hours spent volunteering but does anyone know if they also look at the time span in which the hours were completed? Like, will I be at a disadvantage because they were completed within 6 months?

Thanks and I hope all is well with your studies/applications!

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[apta_pharaoh]

I am switching from a career in Engineering to PT. I have a 3.7 undergrad GPA and will be taking Anatomy and Physiology this summer to complete my pre-req's. I have a lot of free time between now and when summer classes start and will be volunteering with a home health company under a PT to get my minimum of 200 hours completed before the application deadline.

I know they look at the total hours spent volunteering but does anyone know if they also look at the time span in which the hours were completed? Like, will I be at a disadvantage because they were completed within 6 months?

Thanks and I hope all is well with your studies/applications!

You should be fine get the hours. I remember I did 40 hours a week for a month at an outpatient location then the same at an inpatient location the next month. I got in...

 

[JamesAGould]

That's great news! Thank you!

 

[PTX2]

I have a lot of free time between now and when summer classes start and will be volunteering with a home health company under a PT to get my minimum of 200 hours completed before the application deadline

Is this the only setting in which you will have observation hours?

Some programs require exposure to multiple settings, especially inpatient acute care.

 

[DesertPT]

Once you've met the minimum number of total hours required by the program, diversity of settings is the most important factor. The timespan in which the hours were completed will almost certainly not be considered.

If the program's minimum is 200 hours, spending 200 hours in home health would not be worth your time. 40 hours each in home health, outpatient ortho, acute, acute rehab and some other setting (eg SNF, peds, outpatient neuro/vestibular, hand therapy, women's health, etc, etc) would be super beneficial though. The only real advantage to spending more than 30 or 40 hours in a particular setting is that you get to know a PT better which can help with LORs. Even then I'd say spending 100 hours max with one PT is more than adequate. Heck, I spent 25 hours each with the two PTs that wrote LORs for me. Asking someone you don't know well for a reference is totally awkward but in the end it worked out fine.

Keep in mind that your general outpatient clinic, your acute hospital and some kind of inpatient rehab are your cardinal settings that the majority of PTs practice in. I think it is important to prioritize getting exposed to these three and then you can delve into other specialities if time and desire permits. Of course if your home health deal is already set up you are going to do it. But don't only do that. Remember that the school's goal for observation hours is for you to come into PT school as generally knowledgeable about the nature of the profession as one can be as a pre-PT, not for you to just amass raw numbers of hours for the sake of hours.