Questions About Rehab Medicine/PM&R and Primary Care Sports Medicine in Australia?

[Austranada]

Just wondering what the specialties are like and the pathway/schooling required, as well as other details like lifestyle, workload, types of patients, etc. Really any information would be great. When researching myself I primarily find information on North American PM&R instead of rehab medicine and I'm not sure if the two are directly comparable? I know the RACP Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine says they've adapted their general outline of the specialty from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, but is the specialty itself the same in most other aspects as PM&R? Here's where I found the information relating to Rehab medicine toPM&R:

Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine

The Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM) is a Faculty of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). AFRM provides training and continuing education for Rehabilitation Medicine Fellows and trainees throughout all stages of their career.

www.racp.edu.au

I also couldn't find too much information on Primary Care Sports Medicine in Australia either. From what I found, at least in North America, people tend to do the FM > SM, or PM&R > SM route, with the workload/lifestyle being comparable to FM or PM&R and a slightly higher salary? However from what I've found, in Australia you can just go into sports medicine after completing PGY3, from what I've read here:

Sport and Exercise Medicine

ama.com.au

So would anyone be able to clarify the pathway for these specialties, the type of work you do, how they compare to their North American counterparts, and any other details?

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[BigPikachu]

Most of this information is already on the respective specialty college websites...

Rehab Medicine: Finish Internship (PGY1) and Junior House Officer (PGY2) as a minimum with the standard Emergency, Surgical, Medical experience. No entrance exam but CV scoring. Apply for a accredited rehabilitation registrar training position at a teaching hospital and successfully attain the job. Apply to the Royal Australiasian College of Physicians to become a registered Rehabitation Medicine trainee. It's a minimum 3 year training program spent in Rehab Units, with the option of doing an additional 1 year training in other relevant specialties. Complete in-training assessments over that period, and eventually a final written and clinical exam. Then you can apply for Fellowship and specialist recognition as a Rehab Physician. In terms of work, I have a few mates who do Rehab medicine: it's very chilled and subacute medicine; round on patients every 2nd or 3rd day, pretty much have the allied health team do all the work, mostly inpatient hospitalist work with limited outpatient clinic duties required, and if they get acutely unwell you can transfer them to a more acute medical specialty unit. Apparently the lifestyle for rehab medicine is almost as good as it is for GPs / Family Physicians. The only hard part is finding a Staff Specialist job at a hospital.

Sports Medicine: Finish Internship (PGY1) and Junior House Officer (PGY2) as a minimum with particular emphasis on Emergency and Orthopaedic experience. Entrance exam and CV scoring to become an accreddited trainee with the Austrlaiasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians. It's 4 years training under supervision of an accreditated Sports Physician, who work mostly in private practice or as contractors attached to a sporting facility; I think you rotate every 6 monthly. Complete in-training assessments over that period, and eventually a final written and clinical exam. Then you can apply for Fellowship and specialist recognition as a Sports Physician. In terms of work, it's pretty much GP or Family Medicine but with a particular focus with work amongst higher performing atheletes who want to optimise their physiology and/or overcome their sporting injuries, working often alongside Orthopaedic Specialists and Rehab Specialists. Most work is in private practice and not in hospital; you can be attached to a sporting institute or sporting team. Funnily enough, you don't need to necessarily be a Sports Physician to practice the scope of sports medicine, you can be a specialist of something else (e.g. Family Medicine or Orthopaedics or Emergency or Rehab) and still have a special interest with sports and be able to do this.

*PGY = Post Graduate Year after graduating from a University Medical School.

 

[Austranada]

Most of this information is already on the respective specialty college websites...

Rehab Medicine: Finish Internship (PGY1) and Junior House Officer (PGY2) as a minimum with the standard Emergency, Surgical, Medical experience. No entrance exam but CV scoring. Apply for a accredited rehabilitation registrar training position at a teaching hospital and successfully attain the job. Apply to the Royal Australiasian College of Physicians to become a registered Rehabitation Medicine trainee. It's a minimum 3 year training program spent in Rehab Units, with the option of doing an additional 1 year training in other relevant specialties. Complete in-training assessments over that period, and eventually a final written and clinical exam. Then you can apply for Fellowship and specialist recognition as a Rehab Physician. In terms of work, I have a few mates who do Rehab medicine: it's very chilled and subacute medicine; round on patients every 2nd or 3rd day, pretty much have the allied health team do all the work, mostly inpatient hospitalist work with limited outpatient clinic duties required, and if they get acutely unwell you can transfer them to a more acute medical specialty unit. Apparently the lifestyle for rehab medicine is almost as good as it is for GPs / Family Physicians. The only hard part is finding a Staff Specialist job at a hospital.

Sports Medicine: Finish Internship (PGY1) and Junior House Officer (PGY2) as a minimum with particular emphasis on Emergency and Orthopaedic experience. Entrance exam and CV scoring to become an accreddited trainee with the Austrlaiasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians. It's 4 years training under supervision of an accreditated Sports Physician, who work mostly in private practice or as contractors attached to a sporting facility; I think you rotate every 6 monthly. Complete in-training assessments over that period, and eventually a final written and clinical exam. Then you can apply for Fellowship and specialist recognition as a Sports Physician. In terms of work, it's pretty much GP or Family Medicine but with a particular focus with work amongst higher performing atheletes who want to optimise their physiology and/or overcome their sporting injuries, working often alongside Orthopaedic Specialists and Rehab Specialists. Most work is in private practice and not in hospital; you can be attached to a sporting institute or sporting team. Funnily enough, you don't need to necessarily be a Sports Physician to practice the scope of sports medicine, you can be a specialist of something else (e.g. Family Medicine or Orthopaedics or Emergency or Rehab) and still have a special interest with sports and be able to do this.

*PGY = Post Graduate Year after graduating from a University Medical School.

Really appreciate the info, thanks a ton!