I also graduated very recently and here is some information about the program:
I am not sure why the student went to Rhode Island--I never went there in my 3 years of residency
We are NOT a malignant program by any means & had zero malignant attendings while I was there.
We are a small program--3 residents per year but everyone has been successful in their careers post-residency.
Commute can be long depending on where you live--be smart and live in the city so you are equidistant to most sites
We actually have great fellowship match rate
100% PASS rate for PMR Boards at least for the past 3 years while I was there
PROS:
-we get great inpatient (SCI, Stroke, TBI, Gen Rehab) exposure as we rotate at a stand alone hospital in Woburn and the VA
-everyone who wants to do fellowship matches (I am the BI fellow at TIRR this year, my other co-resident is a Sports/Spine Fellow at University of Michigan, and our third resident went out & got an inpatient and acupuncture job. Our previous class matched into Pain (UPMC), Peds (Spaulding), and SCI(Spaulding)
-we get good spasticity exposure which is a great niche for PMR as we are pretty much the only people who know how to manage it (we get experience with Botox and Baclofen pumps).
-Because we are at Tufts, VA, and a Stand alone rehab in Woburn--we get a really full experience of what life for PMR docs is like in different areas (inpatient vs outpatient)
-Program Director is open to changes--i.e. the PGY3s did not find an educational benefit from a rotation; Now that rotation does not exist anymore and the PGY-3 residents are doing something MSK outpatient instead
-1:1 ratio with attendings; therefore we develop a great relationship with our attendings and can write us amazing letters for fellowship or jobs--
-We get 5 conference days so we don't have to take vacay days,
-We are a close knit program because we are so small so we get together for dinners/outings etc. My class in particular, we would go out for dinner at least once a quarter and hang out outside of work regularly
-Protected didactic time on Wednesdays from 8 am to 1 pm
Things to Consider:
-we are heavy inpatient and pgy-2 year is ALL inpatient, but pgy-3 year is partially inpatient and pgy-4 is ALL outpatient to off-set heavy pgy-2 year
-Our call schedule can get busy as they are currently 9 of us in total & we are alone at nighttime at the stand alone rehab which can be scary when you have a "code blue". However, we keep the call schedule as fair as possible (7-8 in house calls per month with a post-call day only when on inpatient at the stand-alone rehab), everywhere else is home call.
-We are working on improving in MSK. We already started going to the cadaver lab in the med school to review anatomy during our didactic days. Additionally, the MSK attendings were planning to make a dedicated US course to help facilitate better Ultrasound and MSK exposure.
