Self-perceived preparedness for practice among graduating physical medicine & rehabilitation residents.
Nathan A Wasserman, Laura Y Huang, Diana M Molinares and 1 others
PMID 39560208WHAT IT FOUND
Physical medicine and rehabilitation residents reported feeling confident in electromyography, nerve conduction studies, spine disorders, traumatic brain injury, and stroke, but underprepared for administrative duties, cancer, cardiac, pulmonary rehabilitation, ultrasound, and osteopathic manipulative therapy.
Key findings
01Graduating residents felt most prepared to evaluate and manage spine disorders, traumatic brain injury, and stroke, but felt underprepared for pulmonary, cardiac, and cancer rehabilitation.
02Across all subdomains, the highest preparedness score was performing electromyography at 4.48/5, and the lowest was osteopathic manipulative therapy at 1.58/5.
03The average preparedness score for familiarity with administrative processes was lower than the average score for each of the other five domains.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Only 40 of 415 graduating residents fully completed the survey, so many programs were not included. Residents reported perceived preparedness, not objectively measured skill. Only one respondent came from a West region program, so the results may not apply to that area. Some comparisons involved very small groups, such as two residents entering brain injury medicine fellowship, so those differences may not be stable.
Declared interests
The authors reported no disclosures.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these self-reported preparedness scores as objective competence or as evidence that residents are unsafe to practice. The survey measured perceived preparedness, not actual skill, and only 40 of 415 graduating residents fully completed it.