Just had my PM & R rotation. Love it!

[WnderWmn10]

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I'm a third year who just finished a two week rotation in PM & R and I love it! Problem is, I was originally thinking I was more interested in Neurology prior to taking this rotation, so I haven't been preparing to be competetive in this field. I think I can get a decent letter of recommendation from my preceptor on this rotation, and otherwise I have average grades, slighly above average Comlex, and overall decent applicant. But, I don't have any research in the field and I am kind of worried I am not competetive enough. I know I'll have to set up some auditional rotations, but I am also kind of worried my two week rotation hasn't prepared me to do very well. Any suggestions on how I can shine on an auditional rotation, and when do I need to set these up by? Anything I can do in the next 5-6 months to beef up my CV a little bit? Other suggestions?

Also, I was also wondering what the job market is like for PM & R trained docs. There doesn't seem to be that many around. Is it typically hard to build a patient base in the field. Are there many large group practices, or do a lot of PM & R docs have to be more independent

 

[MSKalltheway]

As far as I know, research is nice but not that serious at all...it shouldnt hurt you to not have any overall. I plan on having my audition rotation done during or before October in order to (hopefully!) get an LOR in from it by interview time. From reading this board, anytime before match list submission (January) can be done, but I think before November is best for the LOR situation, and to avoid interviewing during an AI .

The two weeks in preparing you for other rotations will be fine as well, from the standpoint of prep for other rotations. The docs I know dont care what you know, they just want enthusiasm, interest, hard work and for you to be a chill person. I just plan on reading, a lot, presenting well, and making the team laugh at least once a day.

I'll leave it to the more experienced here to comment on the job market and to correct anything I said wrong. Doing well on the remainder of your clerkships will likely do the best for you. I'll catch you on the trail

 

[topwise]

PM&R isn't as competitive as neurology, so if you feel you were a competitive applicant for neuro, I think you'll be OK for PM&R.

As for your audition rotations, we've had a lot of med students rotating with us, and the ones that made a great impression were not necessarily the ones with the best knowledge base, but the ones who were the enthusiastic, interested, and retained the things we taught them.

 

[Taus]

You're not in bad shape at all and wouldn't be the the 1st Physiatrist who was originally looking into Neurology. Most students interested in PM&R will not have even had the 2 weeks of experience you did during third year and your prior interest in Neuro will only help you on electives.

If you go into your 4th year electives w/ a solid grasp of Neuro and MSK anatomy, enthusiasm for learning and are easy to get along w/ then you'll be fine. Your research experience will likely be seen in a positive light, regardless if it was specifically in PM&R or not. As for your grades, you can't change what is already done and you should be fine to land a spot somewhere. However, I would focus on improving your boards performance on step 2 if you want a better shot at the top programs (btw USMLE Step 2 Secrets and Combank were awesome for COMLEX CE).

Regarding setting up rotations, I would call the programs that you want to go to ASAP and ask when the earliest date possible is for scheduling an elective for the beginning of 4th year. Some schools let me set one up in Jan/Feb, but most have you wait until March/April. Spots fill up quick and are generally 1st come, 1st serve, so be on top of the paperwork and hoops they make you jump through. I would also try to get an elective that exposes you to various aspects of the field, ie some time in outpatient MSK/Pain as well as inpatient TBI/SCI/etc. Also, scheduling the rotation for sometime b/w June-Sept of 4th year should allow you to get a LOR, get your application in early and not have to miss any days for other interviews.

As for beefing up your CV, just try to find something that interests you and that you're passionate about. Filling it up w/ superfluous BS to take up space on paper won't be worth it and will be difficult to talk about in depth on an interview.

Hope that helps

 

[PMR 4 MSK]

You're fine for PM&R. You may not get into a "top tier" program, but you'll get in somewhere. Interest and enthusiam counts for more than research. Good LOR is must.

Job market is variable depending on where you want to practice, and what aspect of the field you end up in. For the most part, it's still a good market.

 

[evajaclynn]

I think you'll be fine. I didn't experience my first PM&R rotation until September of this past year (my 4th year), and I don't consider my board scores to be all that stellar. I was very involved in a variety of extracurricular activities throughout medical school, and have some nice volunteer and research experiences. I am very happy with the interviews that I got, and I believe that as long as you have a genuine enthusiasm for PM&R and get some nice LORs, you'll do well. GOOD LUCK!

Also, get that application in early - I'd aim for sending it in before October, even if your LORs aren't ready yet. You may find that you get some interviews coming in as soon as you turn in your application.

 

[Karaoke]

Congratulations on finding PM&R! For some people like me, it's a life-changing epiphany. Heck, I didn't even know it was a specialty until halfway through third year of medical school. For others, PM&R was the reason they went to medical school in the first place, god bless'em. With a lot of hard work and a little luck, maybe we can increase the number of people in the latter group and make the former group obsolete. It's a great field.

As to your question, I think as long as you've done at least one month-long elective rotation in PM&R by the end of October (heck, maybe even November) of 4th year, you should be fine as long as you got a nice letter of recommendation out of it. As mentioned many times on this thread and throughout this website, enthusiasm for the field and "easy to get along with" go a long way in PM&R for some reason. Probably has to do with the type of people populating our ranks.

The research part is much more program-dependent, I think. At our program at NYU, we do not have a research requirement for our residents nor for our applicants. (That's not to say there's no research here -- we have studies going on, our new chairman is hiring a new research director to replace the one who recently passed away, and nearly all residents have publications of some sort.) But I, for example, have never had the itch to publish or to conduct a study (in med school or in residency) and I've done just fine without it. Other programs will have different cultures and requirements, and you should look into them individually.