Physical medicine and rehabilitation

[Erk]

Hey folks! The personality-test-style "choose your residency" thingy circulating in the Lounge forum suggested I might enjoy PM&R. I'm curious; after looking up a little about this, it's the first specialty besides family that's been particularly interesting to me. I'm a little turned off by the 5-year residency, but I could probably cope if the field sounded exciting enough. Is there anyone around who can tell me more about what life is like for physiatrists, as compared to FM, or point me at some good resources?

 

Edit: Woops, wrong forum, I see this belongs in 'other'. Doh. A move would be much appreciated.

[Lactic Folly]

http://www.med.ualberta.ca/Library/Documents/Education/StudentAffairs/physical_medicine.pdf

[goleafsgochris]

I did some electives in this in med school. They were in the Toronto/Hamilton area, and I graduated this year, so take this opinion with a grain of salt.

 

From what I got, Physiatrists sometimes like their job because there is a lot of helping people over the long term. However, many complained vigorously about certain things (and had documents as proof!) while I worked under them.

 

First, they make terrible money. You often hear stories about that one PMR doc who makes 500k-1mil, but that really is an extreme outlier. In the Toronto area, physiatrists bill the least out of any medical specialty. You read that right. Less than psych, peds, and significantly less than FM. They make some of that back in medico-legal work, although even with the addition of this, the average PMR doc in the GTA make under 180k. And this is the other point of major complaint--they hate the medico-legal work (atleast the ones I know). They say the paperwork is worse than almost any other specialty, and that even though its a good source of income, per hour it is not worth it, and its extremely frustrating.

 

Moreover, most were irritated that they had more training than those in FM, but had less respect, were less useful overall (could do less things!) and made less money. They felt that they helped people, but the ones I worked with felt that they could do this better/more efficiently in another specialty.

 

Sorry to be a downer lol, but I did 4 varied electives in the specialty, and it was the same story every time. I did not end up applying to it through carms. They do do good work for patients, and it is definitely a field of passion (so if it is yours, please do not let me discourage you!), but I can say with certainty that I am glad it is a field I am not a part of. Good luck!

 

Chris