why PM&R

[scottishlass]

I was wondering if any of you folks out there would be willing to share why you chose PM&R. I did a rotation at the end of my 4th year and loved it but I had already matched in FM (only residency in my home town and I didn't want to uproot my family). I spent 4 weeks on inpatient rehab working mainly with neuro rehab patients. What I liked was the close involvement with patients, being able to influence their QOL, watch their confidence grow as mobility returned. Every day there were small victories for patients and I was sorry when the rotation ended. I am now in the process of applying for a PGY2 spot for 2008 and am having the hardest time putting into words what it is I enjoyed about PM&R. Every area in medicine has the opportunity to improve a patient's well being for but some reason, that I cannot put into words, rehab seemed to be more powerful in that regard for me. There have been some really rewarding moments in my first 3 months of FM but I do not feel that I have had the opportunity to impact patients' quality of life and functional capacity in the way I could in my 4 weeks of rehab.

For those of you who have already started your PM&R residency I would appreciate you sharing how you enjoy it, is it what you expected it to be? I guess I am worried that 4 weeks of inpatient rehab is not enough experience to make such a big change in my career. Unfortunately, I had never even heard of rehab medicine before doing my med school rotation. There was only one student in my class of 190 who went into the speciality. All I can say is there were 2 rotations in med school that I was sorry when they ended - physical med, rehab and pediatrics.

Thanks for your input.

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[Hemisphere]

hey you already answered your own question there or at least started to... you said it was one of the few rotations you were sad when it ended. I think that's a catchy way to start. then maybe come up with a few specific reasons why... you mentioned long-term relationships with patients, and small victories, improving qol... two more things to mention.

one essay writing technique is to free flow and see what ideas came up... then pull out the promising ones and organize it and make it flow.
good luck!

it's different for everybody, for me i had an injury and was tx'd by a physiatrist and was introduced to the field that way. out of all the docs i had seen he was the one who I felt truly listened and helped to diagnose me, i had a chronic pain syndrome and he found a nerve compression on the EMG, went through some pt, etc.

then in med school i did the rotations and found i still liked pm&R as the doc and not just the patient lol...

good luck.

 

[jsaul]

190 students? dammm that's a big class