I am a university student looking to volunteer in a hospital that is mainly for older patients, I have two options, either to work in Rehab settings or in patient care, I don’t really know what the difference in responsibilities would be like but the volunteering assistant I spoke with said that the rehab setting is more of a group-work kind of thing, while patient care is more an individual responsibility, I plan to apply to nursing and/or physical therapy schools later, so what setting (rehab or patient care) do you think I should choose ?
#1 by Murali N on January 10, 2010 - 8:37 pm
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B, be yourself,
Not just because someone told you start doing that.
Search for what is your inner interests and what makes you excite and does not bores you much.
If you feel like you are a team player go for rehab, or you like to work alone and effectively choose patient care.
All the best
#2 by moh on January 10, 2010 - 10:53 pm
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I am a speech-language pathologist in skilled nursing home facility. I think the best thing for you to do is visiting the actual facilities you have in mind. I often suggest high school students to shadow (of course with permission from the authorities in the facility) for a day. One student immediately decided that she did not want to become a speech pathologist in a geriatric setting. One student fell in love with working with geriatrics. He decided to become a physical therapist. Either way, it is good to know what to like as well as don’t like early on. In order for you to know, you really need to visit the facilities.
#3 by girlwhok on January 11, 2010 - 12:20 am
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Perhaps you can do both. Maybe one week volunteer in the Rehab and then the next week volunteer in patient care. That way you can have both experiences and be able to choose for yourself. Without knowing you personally it’s hard to give advice on which is better suited to you.