I live ina medical utopia. It's paradise and quite frankly a fantasy world. We also are well competitively compensated with excellent support staff with near flawless business model. I can't speak for anyone other than me...but I'd imagine that we have a lower rate of burnout than many places. But the work can be tough. You are dealing with complex medical patients, patients with chronic pain, patients with personality disorder...it can be very rewarding but it also can be emotionally exhausting, even with the perfect setup. PM&R absolutely can be the dumping ground for patients who have nobody else willing to take care of them. We are also in an interesting predicament with opiates...which puts stress on the situation even further. I also think that PM&R tends to attract certain people who go into the specialty for the wrong reasons. It has a reputation of "plenty of money and relaxation", when in reality...you typically don't get both. The specialty is more laid back...the people tend to be more down to earth...but you really need to grind to make good money in PM&R. I think that PM&R mind get the people who wanted Derm (for the same reasons as above), and didn't have the scores.
I love PM&R and I wouldn't have done anything different...and that would very likely still be true if I wasn't training at the Disneyland for Physicians. But truthfully, all it takes is one patient to completely wreck your day, and PM&R tends to have MORE of those types of patients than just about every other specialty. You really have to love it, find satisfaction in trying to build hope in the hopeless, and have to be patient enough to work your way through the difficult patients.
