Originally posted by fishybashi
Hello! I am a third year medical student from Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine with a desire to pursue PM&R. I'm looking for recommended programs in the Chicago area and/or in the southeast region. Any advice out there regarding rotating in PM&R, i.e. how to succeed in a rotation, what programs look for in residency applicants, competitiveness, etc.? I would kindly appreciate any direction in this matter.
I would take at look at UAB, UVa, MCV/VCU, Eastern Virginia, Emory,
East Carolina,. I interviewed at East Carolina and thought it was a good program. For a small/college town area of Greenville, the Pitt County Memorial hospital is busy with its 765 bed facility and its main rehab facility located within the Level 1 trauma cneter. The hospital takes of patients within the vast majority of Eastern North Carolina. The ECU facilities were one of the best I've seen. I don't know much about the Tampa program. The U. of Miami will officially begin a residency program next year. The U. of Miami should be good one in the near future.
In the south, I also interviewed at San Antonio and LSU. Both programs are very strong. I've heard all the programs in Texas are very good. Baylor/UT Houston is a very high-powered program with one of the largest group of residents, next to NYU. I preferred the mid to small sized programs. Too many years at NYCOM (over 300 students per class) has made me want a smaller resident group.
In Chicago, I interviewed at Schwab/U of Chicago. The PD is awesome. The facility is very nice. Like other good Chicago hospitals such as Cook County and Rush, the University of Chicago and Schwab rehab are located in the rougher part of Chicago (the south side). The neighborhood area of Schwab brings numerous pathologies for residents to see including many gunshot wounds in SCI. It is interesting that nearly of the attendings completed residency at RIC and almost all are women.
Obviously, also check out RIC. However, this place is very tough to match into. They normally get people at the top of their ranklist. I also heard Rush is good but rotations are scattered apart (as far as Marianjoy rehab in Wheaton). Since I interviewed at Schwab, I also interviewed at Marianjoy on the day before. I don't recommend Marianjoy. It has no true university affiliations. You have to run codes on your own since it is a freestanding rehab facility. Marianjoy is almost all FMGs. I only met 1 AMG in that program. Exposure to consults and EMGs is very limited. None of residents get pain fellowships. With Marianjoy's lack of recognition, the chief resident seems to be searching all over the country to find a good job, even though it's not hard to find a good paying PM&R job.
