2nd Year Med Student Interested in Physiatry...Steps to enhance my application?

[bgabes]

Hi,

I'll try to refrain from getting too ahead of myself (i.e. I'm won't ask how to make 3 million dollars a year as a physiatrist ) but I'm interested in Physiatry and would like to know what I can do now to begin to enhance my application for a physiatry resident. I have step I boards coming up so obviously doing well on them is important, but outside of that I would appreciate any advice on scheduling for 3rd year rotations, possible extracurricular activities, etc. that could help enhance my application (I go to school in Philly and so have plenty of excellent residency programs in the area which I would like to possibly take advantage of in one way or another). In any event, thanks in advance.

Brian

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[pmrunner]

There are a few things that could help you out. One would be to try to get in a PM&R elective ASAP. If you have elective time during third year go and do a rotation then. Maybe do 2 or 3 with a mix of in and out patient experiences so that you can speak intelligently about both sides when you're on the interview trail. While you're on those rotations work hard and get to know the faculty enough so that they can write you a good letter. Also, if you have choices in third year during surgery or medicine choose things that are relevant to PM&R (eg. orthopedic surgery, rheumatology, neurosurg, neurology, etc.) If you have a PM&R dept at your school find someone who can mentor you and they can give you some advice along the way.

Also, extracurricularly. Mainly, do the things that you like doing and then you'll do them well. Show leadership in some way. It doesn't really matter how, in AMA, AMSA, the school's free clinic, the school PM&R club, better yet, if they don't have a PM&R club, start one and start educating your other classmates about this field by bringing in physiatrists at lunch who can talk about their practice or issues facing PM&R docs.

If you want to be an even more killer applicant do some PM&R related research. You could work with PM&R docs, orthopedists, PTs, whoever, but just do a project that kind of relates to PM&R and that you find interesting.

The most important thing though is to do well. Focus on your classes and on your rotations especially those like medicine. Be good with your patients and learn as much as you can third year and this will pay off with good recs and good skills on your part. That's really the most important stuff. As someone said at the beginning of my med school career and I kept it in the back of my mind. JUST don't fail anything. that doesn't mean you have to ace everything or anything. Just don't let anything slide enough that you get to the point where you fail it. Pretty obvious, I guess. And if you fail something, it won't exclude you from this field. It just might require you to adjust the programs that you shoot for.

That's all I can think of for now. Be a good student and do a few things out there that show a genuine PM&Ry quality. Also, if you're sporty- go with that. Run races, join the frisbee team, whatever, that's another very common quality of the PM&R applicant. Not that being a jock is a necessity to being a great applicant or PM&R doc. I just know my athletic endeavors were commonly discussed in my interviews and I think it just added that PM&R look to my application.

Good luck.