REFLECTION OF YOUNG FELLOWS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Reflection of Young Fellows in Clinical Practice

Abstract

Objective: To identify various difficulties in clinical practice faced by young physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) fellows.
Study Design: Qualitative study.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFIRM) from Aug 2017 to Sep 2017.
Material and Methods: The study was carried out on ten physical medicine and rehabilitation fellows, who have cleared their fellowship exams in last 5 years. The study utilized online questionnaire followed by in-depth; telephonic interviews until the point of data saturation. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The data was transcribed in six stages to observe defining meaningful patterns. It was analyzed manually to draw conclusions.
Results: The most common problems observed by young fellows were difficulty in performing specialized electrodiagnostic procedures, interpretation of urodynamics results and performing certain pain procedures including supra-scapular nerve block, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and meralgiaparesthetica block. It was followed by managing specialized population including geriatrics, cerebral palsy and amputees and counseling skills.
Conclusion: The skills component and specialized population management were deficient, though, sufficiently covered in the curriculum. So training institutes must consider certain changes in the teaching and learning environment to improve the identified areas.