Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency interview questions
Rehabilitation interviewers listen for an interest in function: what a patient can do, not only what disease they have. They want to see that you enjoy long relationships with patients and working with therapists, nurses and families toward goals the patient sets.
- Focus on function
- Interdisciplinary teamwork
- Patience with slow progress
What physical medicine and rehabilitation programs ask
Questions about the specialty itself, beside the ones every program asks.
How would you explain what a physiatrist does to a patient who has never heard of one?
- What they're listening for
- Whether you understand the field well enough to explain it simply.
- How to answer
- A short, plain description (a doctor who helps people regain function after injury, illness or pain), one patient as an example, and how the physiatrist works with the rest of the team.
- Where it goes wrong
- A definition so broad it could describe any doctor.
A patient after a stroke tells you their only goal is to walk again. How do you work with that?
- What they're listening for
- Whether you can respect a patient's goal, keep it honest and find steps toward it.
- How to answer
- Find out what walking means to them (getting home, getting to the bathroom alone, going back to work), break it into steps with the therapy team, be honest about what is uncertain, and mark progress along the way.
- Where it goes wrong
- Promising they will walk, or telling them flatly they won't.
At a team conference, a therapist and a nurse disagree about a patient's discharge plan. As the physician, what do you do?
- What they're listening for
- Whether you can lead an interdisciplinary team without simply overruling it.
- How to answer
- Hear each view and what it is based on, bring the discussion back to the patient's goals and safety, include the patient and family, and agree on a clear plan with your attending that everyone understands.
- Where it goes wrong
- Deciding on your own without hearing why they disagree.
A patient with a new spinal cord injury is angry and refuses therapy. How do you approach them?
- What they're listening for
- Whether you can meet grief and anger with patience and keep the door open.
- How to answer
- Acknowledge the loss, listen without pushing, screen for depression and involve psychology, find one small thing the patient does want to work on, and keep the team's message consistent.
- Where it goes wrong
- Labeling the patient as noncompliant.
How do you think about disability, and how does it shape the way you talk with patients?
- What they're listening for
- Whether you see patients with disabilities as people with their own goals, not problems to fix.
- How to answer
- Show respect for patients' own view of their lives, use the language they prefer (some prefer person-first, some identity-first), focus on participation and independence, and give an example of something a patient taught you.
- Where it goes wrong
- Speaking about disability only as loss or tragedy.
Are you drawn more to inpatient rehabilitation or to outpatient work such as musculoskeletal, sports, spine and pain?
- What they're listening for
- Whether you have seen the range of the field and started to test where you fit.
- How to answer
- Give your leaning and the experience behind it, what you want from residency to test it, and respect for the side you lean away from.
- Where it goes wrong
- Talking only about procedures and injections.
The questions every program asks
Expect these too. Each is explained in full on the main questions page.
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why physical medicine and rehabilitation?
- Why are you interested in this program?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a colleague or team member.
- Tell me about a mistake you made in patient care, and what happened.
- That's everything from me. What questions do you have for us?
Questions to ask physical medicine and rehabilitation programs
Ask what their website doesn't answer. These show you have thought about training there.
- How is time divided between inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient clinics across the years?
- How do residents learn procedures such as ultrasound-guided injections and electrodiagnostic studies?
- How do residents work with therapists and take part in team conferences?
- How does the program support residents interested in fellowships such as spinal cord injury, brain injury, pain or sports medicine?
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