Sell me on PM+R!!

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I know very little about the specialty, but what I do know, makes me want to know more. Anyone have a few minutes to tell me what their residency/practice is like? Thanks.

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If you haven't done the research yourself, I don't think that anyone is going to "sell you" on a specialty. It's a big decision and you should probably do an elective in physiatry and see if it is right for you.
 
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In my post, I am asking someone to take a minute or two and describe their residency/practice. In regards to that, I am curious to know about things like:

1) patient population of various hospitals
2) residency attitudes towards DO's
3) salary ranges
4) types of procedures performed (i.e. all hands-on musculoskeletal/range of motion, or other interventional techniques)
5) program upsides/downsides

I am sorry if I insulted anyone with the title of my post. It was an attempt at levity. Of course I understand that no one can make the decision of specialty for me. I do not get the opportunity to do many away rotations, and I need to have a bit of information beforehand. Physiatry is a specialty that I have read/heard very little about and would like to learn more. Thanks in advance.
 
You ask very broad questions, my friend :laugh:

Since I have the day off and I'm swilling down my morning coffee, I'll try;

1) Pt. populations; varies by hospital, depending on if they are stand alone facilities (and thus, which hospitals refer to them), where they are located, if they are a trauma one center, etc. The bigger academic centers will have larger units, wider mix of patients, generally broken up into a Spinal Cord service, Traumatic Brain Injury and/or Neuro/Stroke unit, and a 'general' unit.

2) I can only speak about the Midwest (that's where I interviewed), but all the programs, including the 'top' ones, were very DO friendly with several DOs in the residency and a few on staff.

3) Salaries, beats me.

4) Procedures; Some programs have attendings who do OM. Other procedures included joints, trigger point injections, botox (blind or EMG guided), fluoroscopic-guided injections of lumbar/cervical/SI joint, nerve blocks, as well as EMGs.

5) Program upsides or downsides....see the interview feedback thread. Myself, Axm, and Vlad (a DO) have posted extensively there. I think Axm may have been to the most programs, while Vlad has hit the East coast programs. Me, I'm staying in the Midwest so if you have any questions about the Michigan, Ohio, or Illinois programs - RIC....

Hope that helped, now more coffee! :laugh:
 
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