Program Description

Clinical Rotations

All clinical rotations occur in two-month blocks. Rotational experiences throughout residency are crucial for skill development. As your knowledge and clinical abilities grow, it is essential to refine your skills in diverse settings. Therefore, a mix of inpatient and outpatient rotations will be assigned throughout the PGY2-4 years. Residents will rotate through multiple sites in the Charleston area throughout their 4 years. Please see the clinical sites tab for more information on each specific location.

Each resident’s training includes:

  • Broad intern year experience including time spent on iInternal Medicine, Neurology, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, Radiology, Rheumatology, Neurosurgery, Geriatrics, Orthopedic Surgery, and PM&R 
  • 12 months in the inpatient rehabilitation setting
  • At least 12 months of outpatient care to include MSK/sports, spine, interventional procedures, rehabilitation clinics, and procedural based spasticity management
  • At least 2 months of inpatient acute care consultation experience
  • At least 2 months of pediatric rehabilitation experience, both in the inpatient and outpatient settings
  • At least 2 months of dedicated electrodiagnostic medicine experience. Exposure to EMG is also incorporated into all years of training during outpatient rotations.
  • 4 months of elective time in which residents are able to choose from a variety of pre-selected experiences including: EMG, interventional procedures, acute care consults, pediatric rehabilitation, and/or outpatient clinics.

Conferences and Didactic Curriculum

Residents have protected didactic time Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9am. Core content will be provided on an annual basis. Each didactic module is assigned a faculty module leader who is responsible for content within the module including development of goals and objectives, lecture topics, assessments, and suggested reference materials. A new topic is covered monthly with residents.Topics for residency didactics include:

  • Introduction to PM&R
  • Anatomy Series (includes functional and gross anatomy)
  • Musculoskeletal/Sports Series (includes imaging)
  • Pediatric Rehabilitation Series
  • Spinal Cord Injury Series
  • Prosthetic and Orthotic Series
  • Electrodiagnostic Series
  • Acquired Brain Injury Series
  • Pain Series
  • Miscellaneous Topics: spasticity management, therapeutic exercise, modalities, wheelchair prescriptions, augmentative and alternative communication devices, special populations, industrial/occupational medicine.

In addition to core content, the didactic curriculum will include additional scheduled educational sessions. These include:

  • Monthly mentorship, resident-led seminars, board review, and invitational lecture(s)
  • Every other month resident-led grand rounds, clinical case reviews, M&M conferences, and  journal club(s)

Mentorship Program

Residents will be assigned to a mentor group upon matriculation. Each mentor group will consist of 1 resident from each PGY level and at least 3 assigned faculty members. Every attempt will be made to have faculty members from differing subspecialties of PM&R to ensure resident mentorship in potential areas of interest. This structure allows residents to have access to projects from their resident cohrt and assigned faculty mentors as well as allowing longitudinal research that can be continued after resident's graduate and leave the program. The conference schedule and didactic curriculum includes protected time for each mentor group to meet. Every mentor group will be expected to have at least 1 quality improvement project and 1 research project initiated or completed per academic year.

Resident Call

All call PGY2-4 is taken from home. Residents have the option to evaluate a patient in the hospital if they feel it is warranted.

Resident Evaluations

Evaluations are completed after each rotation. Resident assessments will be collected from a variety of sources including faculty, support staff, and patients. Resident progress is evaluated Semi-Annually by the Clinical Competency Committee (CCC), followed by a review with the program director. Residents are also given the opportunity to evaluate faculty and each rotational experience.