Alright, alright...I'll do my best. Though I do feel that it is time for someone else to contribute - I know that a lot of you out there are just perusing these forums and gleaning tons of great information without contributing anything - I'm on to you!!!
Seattle
I thought I should write about Seattle because some of what I'd seen posted in the past is definitely not true. I'd say that from my interview impressions, this is a very non-malignant program. The residents were extremely friendly and all seemed very enthusiastic about the program.
The day started at 730 am with a welcome by the chief residents. They showed us a nice powerpoint presentation that they'd put together, which was set to music (similar to what was done at RIC). Following was an introduction from Dr. Peter Esselman, who is the new program chairman (has been for about a year now). He was very friendly and spoke about the training and teaching programs within the UW PM&R program. Following this we heard from the residency program director, Dr. Teresa Massagli, whom all the residents simply raved about. They warned that she can be a little difficult to interview with, as she gets straight to the point and its hard to tell what she's thinking, however, when I interviewed her, I found her to be friendly and pleasant - I really enjoyed our conversation, and I was her last interview of the day. Anyways....
The day is then split into morning and afternoon interviews - those with afternoon interviews go on a great tour given by the chief residents. They showed us around UW, then drove us all around Seattle, to all the different neighborhoods, past the VA as well, and even let us stop at a scenic overlook to take pics of the city.
This was a great tour, as it allowed us to really get a feel for the city. The tour culminated after 90 minutes at Harborview, where we met up with the rest of the interviewees and had a nice boxed lunch.
The afternoon involved 3 interviews, all with faculty, and one with Dr. Massagli, who spent 20 minutes with each interviewee. Day ended around 315pm or so.
The residents invited the interviewees out for dinner and drinks later that evening and a ton of residents showed up. We had a great time, and they seemed like a close knit group.
Seattle itself was beautiful, but very cloudy during my trip - saw no signs of sun in 4 days, which is typical for winter. However, it does not get that cold in Seattle and I was able to walk around outside all day long in early January, which was nice. It was pretty rainy, but residents of Seattle tend to be too cool for umbrellas, so wear a raincoat if you want to blend in.
The summers are supposed to be incredibly beautiful, with sunshine lasting up to 16 hrs/day.
So here is some of the information that I garnered about the UW PM&R program:
This year they are taking 8 residents - 3 categorical and 4 advanced.
Following is the breakdown for their categorical intern year (which is modified yearly): 6 months Internal Medicine, 2 months ER, 1 month inpatient Rehab, rest outpt: 1 month Ortho clinic, 1 month Geriatrics, 1 month Neuro consults and outpt, 1 month pain clinics outpt. Dr. Massagli has asked to switch to 1 month of ER with 1 selective of either Rheum, ID, or Endocrine, so that may happen in the near future.
For the PM&R program - there are 4 practice sites - the VA, Harborview, UW medical center and the Children's hospital. Dr. Esselman stated that UW gets more NIH grants than any PM&R dept in the country.
Here's the breakdown of the sites:
UW: 17-20 bed unit, take care of patients with SCI, TBI, stroke, stem cell transplant, cancer, MS, MD and post-polio
Harborview: 29 beds, take care of pts with SCI, TBI, stroke, amputation and burns, this is the only level 1 trauma center in the region - there is a big vascular service with lots of SAH and AVM
VA: 34-38 bed SCI unit and 10-12 bed Gen Rehab Unit - take care of cardiac rehab, SCI, TBI, amputees, stroke, MS, MSK and polytrauma
Children's - 6 - 12 bed unit; they are recruiting a new head of rehab here - take care of TBI, CP, MD, SCI, congenital defects/limb defects, developmental disorders - sepnd 2-3months on Peds
It was said previously that UW was weak in MSK, but they have vastly changed this. They have recruited 5 PM&R MSK docs to Harborview and have added a MSK fellowship, have recruited 3 PM&R MSK docs to UW and 1 more to the Seattle VA. So there are a total of 9 MSK docs and there is a 2 month MSK rotation.
Selected residents will do a 1 month research rotation during their PGY-4 year. Research is not required, but a scholarly project is required. You have 3 options with this project: presentation at a national meeting, or present an annual research day a case report/case series/database report project, etc, OR give a lecture that the attendings evaluate. I don't know how easy it is to just do a lecture rather than the other 2 options.
Residents get 1 elective month.
Spend 5-6 months on EMG, I think. There had been reported that there are a lot of months on consults, however during those months there are a lot of clinics that the residents get involved in as well as time spent on EMGs.
There is no continuity clinic for residents.
Other random details:
Get well over 200 EMGs/year - only EMGs actually performed are counted.
EMG didactics take place during PGY-3.
You are trained in EMGs by both neurologists and PM&R docs.
Targeted education directed towards year in residency - meaning that the PGY-2s get different lectures than PGY-3s and so on.
There is a great board review course that is given free to PGY-4s.
For AAPMR conference - the cost is covered for residents that are presenting and all PGY-4s go to the conference free.
Call schedule: 6 weeks as a PGY-2, 4 weeks as PGY-3, 2 weeks as PGY-2
There are quite a bit of quizzes and exams - for example, you take kinesiology with the PT students and get the same quizzes and tests that they get.
There is also a requirement that you must be observed doing 8 different physical exams each year and these must be signed off by faculty.
There are didactics in MSK, P&O, Kinesiology & Biomechanics, Electrodiagnosis & Neurophysiology, Psych/Neuropsych, Communication disorders, and Practice Management. There is also a research seminar.
The 1st 6 wks of PGY-2, residents are given an intro to PM&R lecture series.
There is an anatomy course with didactics and dissection.
I think that's all I have for now. Really liked the program a lot. Feel free to PM me with questions. Apologize in advance for any inaccuracies, but this is verbatim what I was told throughout my interview day!
