What does a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician do?

Diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation. Day to day that includes work like document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes and Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition.

What skills should a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician put on a resume?

O*NET rates Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, and Speaking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Allscripts PM, athenahealth athenaCollector, Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR, Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR, and Biodex Medical Systems Biodex Concussion Manager. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician work?

O*NET records 16 titles for this occupation, including MD, Medical Doctor, Pain Management Physician, and Physiatrist. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 55% reported their level of education as "Doctoral Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician resume example

A resume for a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician needs to show the work itself: diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation. Day to day that means work like this: document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes; examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

MD
Medical Doctor
Pain Management Physician
Physiatrist
Physician
Pediatric Physiatrist
PM and R Physician
Rehabilitation Physician
PM and R Specialist
Interventional Pain Physician
Interventional Physiatrist
Pain Medicine Physician
Physiatrist Consultant
Physical Medicine Physician
Rehabilitation Engineer
Rehabilitation Specialist

What people in this job call themselves

Titles reported by people actually doing this work, which is often not the title on the job posting.

MD (Medical Doctor)
Medical Director Acute Rehabilitation Unit Physiatrist
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician (PM and R Physician)

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

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.

15 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Assess characteristics of patients' pain, such as intensity, location, or duration, using standardized clinical measures, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
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, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Allscripts PM
athenahealth athenaCollector
Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR
Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR
Biodex Medical Systems Biodex Concussion Manager
Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
CareCloud Central
Cerner PowerWorks Practice Management
eClinicalWorks EHR software
Email software
Epic Practice Management
GalacTek ECLIPSE
GE Healthcare Centricity Practice Solution
Greenway Medical Technologies PrimeSUITE

26 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Agility ladders
Automated external defibrillators AED
Balance trainers
Chair cycles
Cold therapy equipment
Custom orthotics
Desktop computers
Electromyographs EMG
Ellipticals
Epidural injection syringes
Exercise balls
Exercise bands

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Critical Thinking
02Active Listening
03Reading Comprehension
04Social Perceptiveness
05Speaking
06Judgment and Decision Making
07Complex Problem Solving
08Coordination
09Monitoring
10Writing

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Medicine and Dentistry
Psychology
Biology
Therapy and Counseling
Education and Training
English Language
Customer and Personal Service
Administration and Management

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

55%Doctoral Degree
43%Post-Doctoral Training
1%First Professional Degree, awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Extensive Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Common questions

What does a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician do?: Diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation. Day to day that includes work like document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes and Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition.
What skills should a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician put on a resume?: O*NET rates Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, and Speaking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Allscripts PM, athenahealth athenaCollector, Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR, Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR, and Biodex Medical Systems Biodex Concussion Manager. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician work?: O*NET records 16 titles for this occupation, including MD, Medical Doctor, Pain Management Physician, and Physiatrist. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 55% reported their level of education as "Doctoral Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.