What makes a good PM&R doc?

[fozzy40]

As I finish my 3rd year, I have narrowed down my choices to PM&R, FP, and IM. I am pretty sure that I want to go into sports medicine and I know that I can get there in any of these fields. I love PM&R on paper but I have yet to do a rotation. Unfortunately, I won't get my first PM&R rotation until the end of July and it's an outpatient-pain based practice. I will have the opportunity to do an inpatient based PM&R rotation in September and I done my reading and talked with various residents and attendings in a variety of settings. I guess I am worried that I won't be able to get enough "exposure" in enough time to make a good decision.

It's an extremely loaded question, but what attributes in a person typically draw them into PM&R?

Reasons why I think I'd make a good PM&R doc:
- I like the team approach
- genuine love of people
- continuity of care
- "Wholistic" type thinking
- an opportunity for me to maintain my osteopathic skills
- allows me to go into sports medicine

Reasons that concern me about choosing PM&R:
- losing basic medical knowledge
- I don't mind some administrative work but I don't want to be JUST talking with family and case workers all day (in the inpatient setting)

I know that there are a number of factors and where you train has a lot of influence. If you could cancel out the lifestyle factor, I 'd greatly appreciate your input.

Thanks again.

Fred

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[defphiche]

I chose PMR for many reasons and some of the reasons were that I didn't want other fields....

I was interested in sports medicine and musculoskeletal medicine; thus, ortho was the obvious choice. Luckily before medical school, I was a Physical Therapist Aide and was exposed to PMR in an inpatient setting.

When it came time to choose, I didn't like Ortho (too many reasons to go into) but basically it came to call, OR schedules, and colleages.

and I could not do the following:

ER- most cases were MI, Chest pain, URI, PID... couldn't stand it, the lacs and trauma were there, but not enough to stop the other stuff. While the shift work was cool at first, I realized that they have admin stuff on other days so you work more than you think.

FP- I didn't want Well baby or OB. I didn't like the various rotations and felt that it was lacking on options... now I see that Sports Medicine is dominate by FP, but at the time I didn't want the rotations.

Neuro- Hard lifestyle with Call. I didn't think I had enough exposure to the muscluskeletal stuff I wanted.


I chose PMR and realized on my first day, I made the right choice as we had a sports lecture on the shoulder. What I liked about PMR was the diversity of options for a career, the various systems learned (Neuro, Spine, MSK, Sports, ect...), the colleages, the lifestyle, and most important, the compensation as a specialist. I did like the exposure to inpatients and the rehab process, but what PMR allowed me was the option to do outpatient work.

PMR exposed me to a field that I didn't even know about and now PMR is gaining a strong foothold in that field- Pain Medicine. I know have all that I was looking for: sports, MSK, spine, neuro (emg), neuro (sci), ect... I feel very fortunate to have picked my field and know that it took luck and the right exposure.

What ever you decide to do in life, make sure it is fun and you enjoy doing it and showing up to work.

 

[Bulldog007]

You had mentioned compensation for PM&R specialists do you have any idea what these are and/or what kind of clinics these docs work in? Thanks.