I'm sorry but your post is ridiculous. Look at the stickies on the top of the forum and you will find your answers.
What kind of question is "what can a physiatrist do that a PT can not?"
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
This is actually a very common question among not only medical students but residents and attendings. While it is well-discussed here on several threads, I don't think that we should "hammer" anyone for asking an innocent question. As a medical student that is interviewing for PM&R, I hope that you would be more sensitive to this issue because it's a common question and it doesn't reflect well on the field if you give them a close ended response. I suggest you prepare to have your "elevator one-liner" because you are going to be asked this time and time again and doing it on SDN is the perfect place to start practicing.
To the OP:
This post answers a lot of the blurriness between the two fields:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=720053
&highlight=difference+physical+therapy
Part of the problem with the misconception of our field is that it's not accurately named anymore. We no longer do much physical medicine (use of modalities such as ice and heat) in our day to day practice. Most of our residency training is in rehabilitative issues i.e. diagnosing chronic overuse injuries, managing sequelae of orthopedic and neurologic injuries through skin, bowel, bladder care, and symptom management as the patient goes through the rehabilitative process. Physiatrists are trained in determining when and what therapies are beneficial for patients and how to write
specific therapy prescriptions, which I think is different from the average FP, ortho, internal medicine prescription. Writing "low back pain" on a therapy prescription is similar to writing "sick" on a consult for surgery. We are trained to be more specific i.e. flexion based lumbar stabilization, focus on RT hip flexor and IT band tightness, and develop home exercise program.
Truth be told, physical therapists are much better trained in kinesiology, biomechanics, and exercise prescription. It's the physiatrists job to direct what kind of therapy the patient should get and any provide limitations for their therapy program.
I hope this helps.
As a pre-med, I encourage you to look into the field because it's one that is commonly overlooked. It's an awesome field and it's pretty hard to find an unhappy physiatrist
fozzy40
