I'll attempt to give a fair review as someone that's rotated in the field and considering it for residency.
Pros of the field:
-lowest three board scores of any specialty, along with family med and psych
-easy to match
-decent hours
-msk/anatomy is the best
Cons
-low pay. Basically equals family med + 20k
-notes, notes, notes + a never ending stack of disability and insurance forms. I've yet to see a field with more paperwork.
-you're the intern twice. You do a prelim program, and when you start your advanced program, you're the intern doing all the notes/dispos/transfers again
-jobs are limited given how small the field is. Few inpatient rehab units that aren't already staffed. And in outpatient, Ortho always gets first referral. You feed on ortho's scraps
-forget working in/near LA, NYC, Boston, chicago if you want >200k
-some of the most depressing patients in medicine. Everyone has debilitating issues and many will never get better.
--
Personally,
I loveeeeee MSK. I would do Ortho if I had a 240+ since it's 3x the pay without the cons.
That said, I have a 230. So I'm pretty torn on balancing my interest in MSK vs the cons. EM and Anesthesia keep pulling me since they're as attainable residencies, same lifestyle, and 2x the income.
At the end of the day, despite my 12/10 love for pm&r's subject matter, the cons are enough to make me second guess it and start gearing up to dual apply to pm&r and anesthesia. I'm even considering applying to some token family med spots since the residency is shorter and the job market in urban areas is way hotter. Not to mention that family med can change their mind, do a 1 year sports med fellowship and take most of pm&r's outpatient pts.
