IM vs PM&R

[nets445]

MS3 here starting to think what I wanna do with my life. Pretty set on PM&R or IM right now. I have average step score, honors in medicine and average clinical grades otherwise, 1 first author and 4 co-authored pubs in IM subspec field, go to upper mid tier med school. Dont wanna go through hassle of away rotations. Geographic preference of residency is anywhere east of the Mississippi River.

Questions:
1. How much more chill is PMR than IM? AAMC says IM is average 55 hrs/week and PMR is 45 hrs/week.
2. What is the salary difference? AAMC stats IM 250k and PMR 270k but I find it hard to believe IM makes less than PMR
3. I know certain IM fellowships like cards GI and heme/onc are really hard to get into. What about PMR fellowships like pain, msk?

tldr; MS3 who just wants to chill and have a good life. PMR or IM?

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[bashwell]

MS3 here starting to think what I wanna do with my life. Pretty set on PM&R or IM right now. I have average step score, honors in medicine and average clinical grades otherwise, 1 first author and 4 co-authored pubs in IM subspec field, go to upper mid tier med school. Dont wanna go through hassle of away rotations. Geographic preference of residency is anywhere east of the Mississippi River.

Questions:
1. How much more chill is PMR than IM? AAMC says IM is average 55 hrs/week and PMR is 45 hrs/week.
2. What is the salary difference? AAMC stats IM 250k and PMR 270k but I find it hard to believe IM makes less than PMR
3. I know certain IM fellowships like cards GI and heme/onc are really hard to get into. What about PMR fellowships like pain, msk?

tldr; MS3 who just wants to chill and have a good life. PMR or IM?

If you want chill, PM&R is the definition of chill -- "Plenty of Money & Relaxation"!

 

[Rekt]

MS3 here starting to think what I wanna do with my life. Pretty set on PM&R or IM right now. I have average step score, honors in medicine and average clinical grades otherwise, 1 first author and 4 co-authored pubs in IM subspec field, go to upper mid tier med school. Dont wanna go through hassle of away rotations. Geographic preference of residency is anywhere east of the Mississippi River.

Questions:
1. How much more chill is PMR than IM? AAMC says IM is average 55 hrs/week and PMR is 45 hrs/week.
2. What is the salary difference? AAMC stats IM 250k and PMR 270k but I find it hard to believe IM makes less than PMR
3. I know certain IM fellowships like cards GI and heme/onc are really hard to get into. What about PMR fellowships like pain, msk?

tldr; MS3 who just wants to chill and have a good life. PMR or IM?

IM is the opposite of a chill life, but I will say 270 seems much too high for PMR.

 

[firstaidforever]

There's no way Pm&r has a 270k income average. You get 10k per bed you cover and you can count on typically covering 15 beds. The rest of your income has to come from taking administrative/teaching roles or outpatient care. That should bump it to 200-250k.

Outpatient is also pretty squeezed. If it's beyond the capability of FM and PT, it gets referred to Ortho. If ortho doesnt want it, you eventually get it.

 

[lal4life]

1. Pm&r is more chill than IM. IM not only takes more call, but the call is usually worse than pm&r. The patients are much more stable (although acuity is increasing) in a rehab hospital or a rehab unit. Most of the rehab programs do at home call and rarely have to come into the hospital to deal with issues. Also, pm&r has a very large outpatient focus that is closer to business hours. The hours can be and more than likely are way better in pm&r than in IM.

2. Pm&r generally brings in a higher salary than IM, but not higher than the more competitive IM subspecialties. And I'm not talking about the pain docs either, I'm talking about general physiatrists. Docs that do pain or a lot of those procedures can get up to $300k pretty regularly.

3. Pain is the most competitive pm&r fellowship, probably followed by sports medicine. They are definitely still attainable, especially since there are a lot of non-ACGME accredited pain/spine/sports/msk fellowships of varying degrees. Not always the best option, but definitely can be a good option.

Maybe I'm a little biased. I'm doing my intern year now before starting pm&r next year. I'm grateful everyday of my intern year that I'm going into pm&r and that there are others that are interested in IM so that I don't have to do it forever. I couldn't imagine doing IM forever. Or for even 3 years to get into cards or gi or something else.

Feel free to pm me for more info if you'd like.