The experience is similar to your first inpatient clinical rotation of your third year.
Once you are assigned an attending, (based off of the designated interest areas you selected) you will be assigned a few patients to follow up with every day.
You should show up and pre-round before rounding with the team. (I think I was coming in around 8am) See your patients and followup on pertinent issues (did those labs come back? how's the chest xray look?) try to talk with the nurses and see if anything pertinent happened with your patient overnight (fevers? falls, agitation?) They use EMR at RIC, but I think we had computer access to look up labs, radiographs, etc. You will spend a lot of time with the residents and try to help them out as much as possible.
There are team meetings, depending on the service/attending possibly everyday. This is where all the people (therapists, case managers, social workers, nursing, speech language pathologists, physicians, etc) that coordinate the care for the patients come and brainstorm the status of the patients.
I don't think you will have to write daily notes, but you should/could for your own benefit.
scattered throughout the week are family meetings.
Everyday at noon there is a lecture on the 16th floor. I think there is food brought in at least once a week.
hours are approximately 8-5. In the afternoons you can go down the the (3rd or 4th floor) clinics and ask the attendings if you can see patients with them. There is a lot of variety in the clinics, since all the attendings specialize in different aspects of care. If I remember correctly, there was rheumatology, post-polio, SCI, brain injury, spasticity, etc you can watch the residents/attendings perform EMG/NCVs and botox/phenol/joint injections.
There is also a research requirement. I think this is a great opportunity for you to get your feet wet. It is suggested to find a project that is already underway and find your role in it. You will find out more about this once you get to Chicago.
I would suggest investing in a pm&r book so that you can read up. I think the pm&r secrets book is only about 40 dollars on amazon. there are other options, but might cost more money.
you should go see a cubs game, and pick the brains of the residents since they will have a lot of wisdom to share.
I think the main duty during this experience is to realize how awesome and fulfilling a career in physiatry is, and share that with the world.
enjoy! 🙂