Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians

What the job really is

Diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation.

At a glance

• Sector: Healthcare Practitioners
• O*NET-SOC code: 29-1229
• O*NET job zone: 5 — extensive preparation
• Work sample tasks on file: 12
• Tools and technologies listed: 12

What you actually do

Work sample tasks recorded for this occupation:

• Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes.
• Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition.
• Assess characteristics of patients' pain, such as intensity, location, or duration, using standardized clinical measures.
• Provide inpatient or outpatient medical management of neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal trauma, acute and chronic pain, deformity or amputation, cardiac or pulmonary disease, or other disabling conditions.
• Monitor effectiveness of pain management interventions, such as medication or spinal injections.
• Develop comprehensive plans for immediate and long-term rehabilitation, including therapeutic exercise, speech and occupational therapy, counseling, cognitive retraining, patient, family or caregiver education, or community reintegration.
• Coordinate physical medicine and rehabilitation services with other medical activities.
• Perform electrodiagnosis, including electromyography, nerve conduction studies, or somatosensory evoked potentials of neuromuscular disorders or damage.
• Prescribe physical therapy to relax the muscles and improve strength.
• Consult or coordinate with other rehabilitative professionals, including physical and occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech pathologists, neuropsychologists, behavioral psychologists, social workers, or medical technicians.
• Prescribe therapy services, such as electrotherapy, ultrasonography, heat or cold therapy, hydrotherapy, debridement, short-wave or microwave diathermy, and infrared or ultraviolet radiation, to enhance rehabilitation.
• Instruct interns and residents in the diagnosis and treatment of temporary or permanent physically disabling conditions.

Tools and technology

Microsoft Word, eClinicalWorks EHR software, Agility ladders, Allscripts PM, Automated external defibrillators AED, Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR, Balance trainers, Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR, Biodex Medical Systems Biodex Concussion Manager, Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR, CareCloud Central, Cerner PowerWorks Practice Management

What employers expect you to already be comfortable with.

Where this job leads

Related occupations — the usual moves up and sideways:

• Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
• Pediatric Surgeons
• Cardiologists
• Emergency Medicine Physicians
• General Internal Medicine Physicians
• Neurologists
• Physical Therapists
• Urologists

Getting in

O*NET assigns this occupation job zone 5 (extensive preparation). The related occupations above are the realistic routes in and out.

Find openings

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Check this against the source

O*NET OnLine: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians — the authoritative public-domain profile this page is derived from, including the full task list, reported skills and the wage estimates for your region.

Derived and rewritten from the public-domain O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor / Employment and Training Administration). Figures are observations, not promises — always confirm salary, licensing and visa requirements with the employer and the relevant authority.