When it comes to wanting to volunteer at a physical therapy clinic, there are a number of different reasons as to why an individual may want to do so. If you’re wanting to volunteer at a physical therapy clinic, this article will help give you some general insight as to whether or not it’s possible.

Volunteering at a physical therapy clinic is something that can indeed be done. However, the reason(s) as to why you’re looking to do it AND the type of clinic you’d like to volunteer in will greatly determine how easy it is to find a clinic to do so.

While most individuals looking to volunteer within a clinic are doing so for considering a career in PT or for meeting application requirements for PT school, there can be other reasons to volunteer. The rest of this article will look at the most common reasons that individuals volunteer their time in physical therapy clinics.

Volunteering at a clinic for considering a career as a physical therapist

Real quick, if you’re considering a career in physical therapy and are wanting to learn a bit more for knowing whether or not it can be the right fit for you, be sure to check out my article: A Career in Physical Therapy: Here’s How to Know if it’s Right for You. This article will give an extensive overview for helping you begin to know if it may just be the career for you.

Just like nearly any other career, gaining volunteer hours through first-hand means in the work environment is arguably the best way to see if you are truly interested in that career. Since physical therapy involves working directly with patients and other individuals, it’s hard to know if this is something you’d enjoy or could see yourself doing unless you spend some time in a clinic.

You can read about the profession all you want, or ask physical therapists themselves for their personal insights, but there’s no better way to know for yourself than to actually be present within a clinic. This allows you to actually see and feel what the daily work life of a physical therapist is actually like.

So, if you’re beginning to consider possibly looking into PT school in order to become a physical therapist, spending some time volunteering in a clinic can be a great move to help you know with confidence whether or not the job demands and work environment for being a physical therapist appeal to you.

This is one of the two primary reasons why schools oftentimes require volunteer hours to be completed by their applicants. Aside from them wanting the applicants to know for certain that they understand what the tasks and demands of daily physical therapy treatment and evaluation consist of, they also want applicants to have some experience in these environments before their schooling begins. This experience allows them to have the best chances of success as possible while in school.

A personal note: If you’re thinking of a career in physical therapy, I personally wouldn’t advise applying to school until you know for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN that you want to do it for a career – it can be an incredibly costly financial mistake to pursue PT school to only then realize it likely isn’t the career you’re after.

Volunteering at a clinic for application requirements for physical therapy school

Most individuals who are volunteering time within physical therapy clinics are doing so as a means to collect hours primarily in order to meet application requirements for the physical therapy school they are applying to.

While not every PT school requires volunteer hours to be completed before applying, many schools do, with a certain percentage of these schools requiring verification of those hours by the physical therapist(s) that they volunteer with. If you happen to be wondering just how many hours you’re likely to need before you apply, I have a blog post that will give you all sorts of great data and insight towards what you need to know, which you can check out here: PT School Observation Hours: How Many Are Needed for Applicants?

Another reason as to why these applicants volunteer time within clinics is to gain as much knowledge, insight and experience as possible in order to be better prepared for when it comes time to their coursework in school.

Many applicants choose to volunteer their time and hours well above and beyond the recommended or mandated hours set forth by the school. Doing so can certainly benefit these individuals by bolstering their knowledge and experience in all areas pertaining to physical therapy. This is a move that I certainly advocate doing, if at all possible.

If you happen to fall into this category and are wanting to know how to go about finding clinics that you can volunteer at, and how to ask for volunteer hours, I have written an article on this, which you can check out here: How to Find Clinical Observation Hours for PT Application Requirements

Volunteering at a clinic for non-academic reasons

While the vast majority of volunteers within PT clinics are doing so for learning more about the profession or for preparing for PT school itself, there can be other reasons as to why someone may choose to volunteer.
If you happen to fall into this category, there are some things that you’ll likely need to keep in mind:

The first thing to keep in mind is that (regardless of the type of clinical setting) if you are able to volunteer, the patient will always need to give consent to their physical therapist for permission for you to be present during any and all parts of their treatment session. This is also true for applicants and future PT students who are collecting their hours.

The next thing to keep in mind is that you may be more limited towards the clinical environment that you can volunteer in if you have no intentions for applying to PT school in order to become a physical therapist yourself. 

Certain PT clinics tend to be more reserved for allowing volunteers into the clinic who are not doing so for school-related means. This tends to be especially true for in-patient settings (such as hospitals) or skilled nursing facilities. There can be a few different reasons as to why that is.

The main reasons for reservation in these types of settings for non-application volunteers to be around these populations is due to vulnerability of these patients and sensitive medical information that is often discussed between the patient and the physical therapist. While a patient can consent for having a volunteer be present during their treatment, certain populations may have compromised cognitive function in these circumstances. If a patient can’t consent, a volunteer can’t be present.

Another reason that can arise is due to the vulnerability of certain populations. Populations within skilled nursing facilities or other in-patient or sub-acute facilities may be vulnerable to sickness, diseases, etc. Minimizing their exposure to individuals who are not a required part of treatment can be a priority.

There’s never any harm in asking to volunteer

If you want to volunteer for non-academic purposes, you can certainly still inquire and check with these clinical facilities, it’s just worth having a heads up in knowing that they may not permit volunteers for these types of reasons listed above, among other reasons. If they do, it’s also important to know that you are not able to participate in treatments or interventions in any sort of way (which is the same case for anyone volunteering for academic purposes).

You may have better luck at privately owned, out-patient facilities

If you’re really looking to find a clinic to volunteer at for non-academic purposes, you’re likely to have more luck at a privately owned, out-patient clinic. It would likely be easier if you had some sort of personal connection with the clinic owner or a staff member who works at the clinic, but you could still ask (in a professional manner) if you didn’t have any connections with the clinic.

While a clinic owner at a private facility has the discretion to allow you to volunteer with the clinic, it’s likely that they would be rather hesitant if you didn’t have any academic aspirations with pursuing a career in physical therapy. But, it never hurts to ask. Just don’t take it personally if they choose not to have you volunteer at their clinic. These types of situations can be tricky if you’re dead set on volunteering at a clinic for non-academic reasons.

Concluding remarks

Volunteering time within a physical therapy clinic is a common occurrence. The vast majority of volunteering being due to individuals who are curious to learn more about if the career of a physical therapist may be a good fit for them, or for individuals who are attempting to fulfill volunteer hour requirements as part of the application requirements for physical therapy school.

There may be other reasons for individuals to volunteer their time within a physical therapy clinic, but it is less common and may be more difficult to find a clinic or facility that will permit these volunteers to spend time at the clinic.

Regardless of the reason for an individual volunteering their time at a physical therapy clinic, the patient will always need to give consent to their physical therapist for the volunteer to be present during their evaluation and/or treatment. This is due to the medical nature of physical therapy clinics and is thus a legal requirement.

Whichever reason(s) you may have for wanting to volunteer some time within a physical therapy clinic, I wish you the best of luck for finding a clinic in which you can do so.

Related articles

1. A Career in Physical Therapy: Here’s How to Know if it’s Right for You
2. PT School Observation Hours: How Many Are Needed for Applicants?
3. How to Find Clinical Observation Hours for PT Application Requirements
4. Volunteer Clinical Hour Requirements: What PT Applicants Need to Know