There are several steps to take for getting a Physiatry Job. Below are ten steps to take to land that dream job!
- Determine Your Interest
- Find Physiatry Practice Opportunities
- Narrow Down the Practice Opportunities
- Contact Practice Opportunities
- Look for Items That Match Your Interests and Any Red Flags
- Be Selective
- Check out the Corporate Culture
- Provide References
- Review the Contract With a Lawyer
- Sign on the Dotted Line and Best Wishes!
Physiatrists assess and treat individuals with short-or long-term cognitive and/or physical impairments and disabilities resulting from:
- Musculoskeletal conditions, such as work or sports injuries, or back or neck pain
- Neurological conditions, including brain injury, stroke or spinal cord injury
- Other medical conditions
A new clinical physiatry pathway that offers rewarding work for doctors is cancer rehabilitation medicine.
As doctors, physiatrists are trained for leading a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team, including healthcare professionals like:
- Physical, occupational and speech therapists
- Nurses and prosthetists
- Dietitians
When trying to figure out how to get a physiatry job, your first step is to first become a doctor. Then you’ll complete special physiatry training.
10 Steps to Getting a Physiatry Job
Below are the steps to take when learning how to obtain a physiatry job.
1. Determine Your Interest
First, you’ll need to figure out what appeals to you for your physiatry position. Perhaps you want to provide general inpatient and/or outpatient services. Or maybe you want to subspecialize. Some subspecialties are:
- Sports medicine
- Spinal cord injury
- Pain medicine
- Neuromuscular medicine
- Hospice and palliative medicine
- Pediatric rehabilitation
- Cancer rehabilitation
What about compensation? The average physiatry salary in the U.S. as of September 26, 2019, is $232,230. However, the range often falls between a little over $210,000 and $259,000. Salary ranges can widely vary depending on many essential factors, including:
- Certifications
- Education
- The number of years spent in your profession
- Additional skills
Also, what is your location preference? Do you want to work in the city or in the suburbs?
2. Find Physiatry Practice Opportunities
Research online to identify physiatry practice opportunities. For example, Farr Healthcare offers a huge list of the latest in physiatry practice openings, inpatient and outpatient job opportunities and pain management jobs.
Farr Healthcare visits physiatry residency programs to offer information regarding the practice search process and attends national and regional physiatry meetings every year. In fact, Farr Healthcare has often been the only recruitment firm to speak at many American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR) meetings.
Farr Healthcare is your easy, one-stop for physiatrist practice opportunities with a large list of nationwide physiatry practice opportunities.
3. Narrow Down the Practice Opportunities
Depending on your interests, you may need to narrow down the practice opportunities to about six that seem most promising. While you should consider your preferred clinical settings during residency, you should begin your serious considerations by your fourth year.
Some practice options to think about are:
- Census or patient load
- Inpatient or outpatient
- Opportunities for procedures, such as EMG, ultrasound and intrathecal baclofen pump program
- Opportunities to teach residents vs. medical students vs. fellows
- Full time vs. part-time
- Availability of support staff
- Flexibility to mold your practice
- An acute hospital vs. free-standing rehabilitation hospital
- Government hospital setting
- Multispecialty centers vs. single-specialty centers
- Small vs. large practices
- Need for fellowship training
Also, physiatrists might pursue various career paths. Some physiatrists work as part of a bigger treatment team in private practices, but most others work in outpatient specialty clinics, sports medicine facilities, inpatient hospitals and surgical settings.
4. Contact Practice Opportunities
Contact the identified practice opportunities for more information. If you don’t have a connection to the practice, you can email or cold call them. There’s no harm in trying to connect with individuals.
Clinics and institutions might not publicly recruit or advertise for a position because this also expends resources, so it’s worth contacting a recruitment firm like Farr Healthcare or those practices you’re interested in even if you don’t see a position being advertised. The contact person is typically a practice manager, HR representative, PM&R department administrator or physician recruiter.
5. Look for Items That Match Your Interests and Any Red Flags
After identifying potential practice opportunities and learning more about their practice, review the information to see if the opportunity matches your interest. If they meet most of your criteria, you may want to pursue them. However, if you saw any red flags, it may be a good idea to rule their practice out and move on.
6. Be Selective
Visit the practices or hospitals that are of mutual interest. You can essentially interview each practice to find a mutual fit. Consider which organizations would be the best fit for your personality, work ethic, schedule, lifestyle and any other factors important to you.
7. Check out the Corporate Culture
While visiting, look for practices that match the corporate culture you’re looking for. Ask for a sample contract before leaving. Besides the scope of practice, some different areas to consider to look into are:
- Signing bonus
- Moving expenses
- Licensing reimbursement
- CME reimbursement or time-off
- Student loan repayment
- A non-compete clause regarding location, duration and the scope of practice
- Productivity vs. salary-based pay
- Vacation and sick days
- Advancement track
During an interview, it’s wise and appropriate to ask the interviewer about the corporate culture. By doing this, you’ll deepen your understanding of the work environment and how individuals relate to one another at the company. You’ll likely meet with many individuals in the department during the day, which might include the doctors in the practice, nurses, basic science researchers and administrators. This is the best way of obtaining a good sense of corporate culture and personality of the environment and practice you’ll be working in.
8. Provide References
Be prepared to provide references. Ask your references before giving their names out. Typically, practices will request two or three references, either formal or personal recommendations.
9. Review the Contract With a Lawyer
It’s fairly standard today to have a lawyer look over your contract. They can help identify pitfalls and translate legalese. They should be familiar with health law or contract law. Remember, your contract should be properly written out since you’ll be living with it. Your lawyer can negotiate with your employer, but this will cost more and take longer.
Beyond stating the actual term of the rehabilitation and physical medicine contract, what are the terms for termination and continuation? Typically, the time of the term is outlined at the start of the contract and for more information, you’ll have to look usually towards the end of the contract.
If your contract is renewed, will it include the same terms or will it be open for discussion? Check for certain requirements like:
- You need to live inside a specific radius of the practice.
- You have to abide by past and current policies.
- You have to carry a certain type of malpractice insurance.
Ensure the terms aren’t one-sided.
A letter of intent isn’t a substitute for a contract. Whether you use your lawyer as your negotiator will ultimately depend on your comfort level with the contract negotiation and the contract itself and if your employer has their own lawyer.
10. Sign on the Dotted Line and Best Wishes!
Once you’re happy with the contract, now it’s time to sign it. Congratulations, you just landed a job! Make sure you send out a thank you note to all individuals involved in the journey.
Check out All the Open Positions Today
If you’re wondering how to become a PM&R doctor, you might want to check out Farr Healthcare. We have over 30 years of physician recruiting experience and provide an extensive list of physiatry opportunities, including interventional and pain management subspecialties. To fulfill practices’ needs, we’re committed to quality with a great record of recruiting top-notch, results-oriented physiatrists with outstanding interpersonal skills. We provide top-of-the-line physiatry jobs and rehabilitation and physical medicine opportunities.