USF's Program?

I've spoke to a few people from the program. The general consensus is that is one of the top programs in the country for polytrauma. Outpatient exposure is average. Tampa is a great town. The PD is good and supportive. The PC is likely one of the worst in PM&R. I base this both on statements of residents and my own experiences with her. Since it is a VA based program you have the perk of working with great patients, however, there tends to be lots of lazy support staff.

 

Any thoughts from USF residents or recent grads? This program was very impressive on my interview day and the residents I met raved about it. I left thinking it was my favorite interview, but I've also interviewed at more reputable programs...In trying to understand how to view the program given that its reputation is about mid-tier per Doximity...

 

Ignore Doximity--only the top 5 or so rankings are accurate. The rest seemed quite arbitrary. There are programs ranked much higher than they should and many programs ranked much lower than they should be.

The best PM&R program is the best program for you. Reputation matters to some degree of course, especially if you want to go into academics or a competitive fellowship. Everyone will weigh things differently--so if reputation matters, then sure, USF isn't going to be at the top.

The most important thing is that the program isn't going to limit your education/future (ie, that it has strong TBI, SCI, general rehab exposure, good MSK, sports, spine, etc. etc.) Every program will have weaknesses, but you should make sure those weaknesses wont limit your education. That's all quite relative--if you know 100% you want to do outpatient MSK/pain, then it doesn't matter a whole lot if the program you go to has weak inpatient training with no dedicated specialty units. (Though, I'd argue being well-rounded is still a good thing, especially since you never know--you may change your mind on what you want to specialize in)

After that, what mattered most to me was that the program had strong role models--the attendings you work with are the attendings you'll learn how to be a physiatrist from. They will teach you the art and science of physiatry--so you want to be somewhere where you find attendings you'd like to model yourself after.

I also wanted a group of residents that I got along with well--these are the people you are going to learn to be a physiatrist with. This impacts us more than we realize. The attendings are your role models, but your fellow co-residents are to some degree as well.

Research really didn't matter much to me, nor did prestige. So I the main things I looked at were the curriculum and the people. My gut ended up taking me to the right spot. Don't go where you think you should want to go or where you think others think you should go--go to the program that will best prepare you to be the physiatrist you want to be. I'm not trying to sound sappy or anything--that's just my honest take on things.