Disclosures: Alexandra Fry, MD:

Objective: To assess the practicality of the following resources in exploring physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) residency programs and career planning: advisor/mentor, specialty interest group-sponsored activities, school-sponsored career planning workshops and courses, PM&R fair, MS1/2 summer programs, local/regional/national meetings and conferences, websites (AAMC’s Career in Medicine, AAPM&R, AAP), and social media.

Design: Retrospective cohort study

Setting : The survey was developed based on AAMC and NRMP surveys. The survey link, created on Survey Monkey, was sent out via email to all 92 ACGME-certified PM&R residency program directors in the United States including Puerto Rico. The program directors were asked to forward the survey to their residents. The survey was available for a month, and reminders were given 1-week and 1-day prior to the final submission date.

Participants : 176 PM&R residents

Interventions: Not Applicable

Main Outcome Measures: Residents ranked each of the resources’ usefulness through 5-point Likert scale: 1-N/A, 2-Not Useful, 3-Minimal, 4-Moderate, and 5-Very Useful.

Results: 48.86% and 23.30% found advisor/mentor and the websites to be ‘Very Useful’ resources, respectively. Over half of the residents who graduated from the medical school with PM&R department or section/division and chose advisor/mentor as the most useful resource. On the other hand, 48% of the residents who graduated from the medical school without any presence of PM&R answered the websites as the most useful resource. Surprisingly, social media and school-sponsored workshops and courses came out to be the least useful resources. Conclusions: In an effort to effectively facilitate recruitment into physiatry and provide useful resources, various steps have been made among physiatrists. This study reveals that, despite prevalent use of social media and AAP’s financial support for PM&R fair, the two most useful resources in exploring PM&R residency programs and career planning are advisor/mentor and websites such as AAMC, AAPM&R, and AAP.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-most-useful-resources-in-exploring-physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-residency-programs-and-career-planning/