Hi. I am a first-year medical student at University of Miami, and I recently learned about PM&R as a specialty. I just met a physiatrist at a lecture last week on complementary medicine and before then I did not even know that this field of medicine existed. I wish I had known about PM&R sooner because it sounds like such an interesting field.
I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can give me about pursuing physiatry.
umq,
I've been here tryin' to work my magic here getting my classmates interested in PM&R, or at least informed. I just had a meeting yesterday where a couple of our 4th years who matched came to talk to students, so hopefully I can be of assistance to you! Residents and attendings who post here will have a better perspective than I, but I'm procrastinating so I figured I'd answer
1) Is there a difference b/w PM&R and physiatry?
No, they are one in the same. A Physiatrist practices PM&R
2) Do you apply to a PM&R residency directly or do you first have to do a year of internal medicine or some other general kind of residency?
This can sound complicated when you get into the details, but for the most part yes, you do a year of internal medicine first, then 3 years of PM&R residency.
3) Can you do an externship in PM&R at more than one school during third and fourth year?
Depends on how many away rotations your school allows you. This shouldn't be a problem generally. I personally plan on doing 2-3, one at my home institution, one at a top tier program, and maybe one at Hopkins (its across town so why not?)
4) What other clerkships during 3rd and 4th year are helpful to better prepare you for a future in PM&R?
There are many, but popular ones I heard of were Neurology, Orthopedic Surgery, and Neurosurgery. Urology, EM, FM and Rheumatology were others people have suggested to me.
5) What is the average board score to get a residency spot in PM&R?
I guess the easiest way to go about this is to quote the charting outcomes. The 2007 mean was 209 and the 25:75 percentile range was 195-222 for US Seniors. As discussed in other threads, top programs will likely get more applicants with scores in the higher ranges, whether it be program selection or self-selection. PM&R focuses less on strictly Step 1 score and looks more at the complete package. However, still do as well as you possibly can! A great score only helps.
Showing early interest in PM&R as a med student is a bonus too. RIC has a summer externship program, and Cincy used to have one although I dont think its been active for a few years. If your school has a department, see if you cant shadow/research this summer. Had I stayed here at school last summer, I would have done my own "make your own externship" at the Rehab facility affiliated with school (you can count the # of physiatrist faculty here on one hand, but those here are flexible and awesome...most attendings in the field are). If you dont have a PM&R interest group at school, start one. If you already have one, be really involved in it. Make sure to have a positive attitude and be great with your patients. As one of our classes matches said, "They look for a certain personality because you'll have to tell someone they'll never walk again, so they want people who can be great at communicating with patients."
I hope the answers and advice I gave you sound reasonable, its mostly just echoing sentiments from other people and statements from this very forum. PM me if you have any specific questions of me, I hope that helps you out!
