Physical medicine and rehabilitation residents' educational needs assessment.

A study was done to determine how well residents in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) believe their educational needs are being met in various clinical and didactic areas. Surveys were sent in April 1989 to the 814 persons on the 1989 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation resident physician registry. Residents were asked to rate how much experience they thought they were getting in their residency for each of 22 clinical and didactic topics such as stroke, spinal cord injury, head injury, prosthetics, chronic pain, sports medicine, pediatric rehabilitation, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, electromyography, and physical modalities. In addition, they were asked to rate how much they believed they should be given with respect to these same topics. The response rate was 532 out of 814 (65%). Residents expected somewhat more than what they were getting overall; however, there were exaggerated discrepancies in a few specific areas. Residents believed they should be getting significantly more clinical and didactic experience in Industrial Medicine, Sports Medicine, Computer Applications, Therapeutic Injections, and Administration. The results should serve as guidelines for residency training and the study should serve as a model for future routine assessments.