Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residents at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are seen with a poster presentation.

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency

Program Overview

The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is a three-year, ACGME-accredited program that admits four residents per year.

Program Details

The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center offers many opportunities for growth and experience in the medical field.

Hershey Medical Center is the only medical facility in Pennsylvania to be accredited as both an adult and a pediatric Level 1 trauma center, with 551 licensed beds and 63 associated specialty practices located at 24 clinics in eight central Pennsylvania counties.

Our Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department was established in 2010 with the opening of the 54-bed Penn State Rehabilitation Hospital, a joint venture between Select Medical and Penn State Health Medical Group.

This unique venture between a premier academic medical center and a for-profit rehabilitation organization was so successful that the Rehab Hospital was expanded in 2014 to include an additional 44 beds (22 of them dedicated to Transitional Care), a Wound Care Center and an Outpatient Day Program. The Rehab Hospital is both Joint Commission and CARF-accredited.

For those interested in research, the 4,500-square-foot Penn State PM and R Research Laboratories include exercise, body composition, locomotor training and gait equipment at the Hershey Center for Applied Research (HCAR), and complement the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), one of only 64 National Institutes of Health-funded infrastructures that promotes and supports clinical/translational research on both the medical as well as State College campuses.

Our Team

Curriculum

Our program is a three-year advanced program for post-graduate years two though four (PGY-2 to PGY-4). The applicant is expected to attend an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited preliminary year before starting the residency program. The program combines both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation medicine with exposure to the following:

PGY-2

  • Traumatic brain injury (three months)
  • Spinal cord injury (three months)
  • Stroke rehabilitation (three months)
  • Complex care/orthopaedics (three months)

PGY-3

  • Sports medicine (one month)
  • Interventional pain management (one month)
  • Research (one month)
  • Pediatrics (three months)
  • Neurophysiology (three months)
  • Clinic rotation (three months)

PGY-4

  • Consults/senior inpatient (three months)
  • Wound care/procedures (three months)
  • Veterans Association Hospital musculoskeletal electromyography (MSK/EMG) (three months)
  • Clinic rotation (three months)

Lectures and didactics

  • Weekly Didactics (Fridays 8:45 to 11:45 a.m.)
  • Morbidity and Mortality Case Presentation (first Friday of each month, noon to 1 p.m.)
  • Grand Rounds (second Friday of each month, noon to 1 p.m.)
  • PM and R Research Lecture Series (third Friday of each month, 2 to 3 p.m.)
  • Journal Club (fourth Friday of each month, noon to 1 p.m.)

Didactic topics

  • Rehabilitation basics
  • Gross anatomy dissection
  • Electromyography (EMG)
  • Injections
  • Spinal cord injury (SCI)
  • Cerebrovascular accident (CVA)
  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
  • MSK/biomechanics
  • Prosthetics, orthotics and gait
  • Research
  • Quality improvement
  • Cardiac
  • Pulmonary rehabilitation
  • Burns
  • Wound care
  • Cancer
  • Rheumatology
  • Geriatrics
  • Sports medicine
  • Ultrasound
  • Pediatrics

Resources

Teaching Facilities

To Apply

All applications must be received through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Your application should be completed by Dec. 31.

The following items must be included in your ERAS application:

  • Curriculum vitae
  • Personal statement
  • Medical school transcripts
  • Medical student performance evaluation (MSPE)/dean’s letter
  • Letters of recommendation (at least three letters from faculty with at least one from a physiatrist)
  • U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) or Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX) transcripts
  • U.S. clinical experience is preferred, but not required

We will contact you via email to schedule interviews. Our interviews occur between October and January.

All candidates need to be registered with the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). We do not offer any positions outside of the match.

International Medical Graduates

We do accept applications from foreign medical graduates. The application process is similar to the above. You must apply via ERAS and be registered with the NRMP.

You must be one of the following:

  • U.S. citizen
  • Permanent resident (green card holder)
  • J-1 visa holder, sponsored through the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)

We do not sponsor any other visas. All international medical graduates must be certified by the ECFMG prior to the match, but not prior to applying.

To be considered competitive for our program, you must have:

  • Competitive scores on the USMLE. We do not have a specific cut off for USMLE scores; however, you should have a score of 220 or above to be considered.
  • U.S. clinical experience in the past two years with a letter from a U.S. physiatrist.
  • Graduated from medical school in the past five years.
  • Successfully completed the Clinical Skills requirement on the USMLE.
  • ECFMG certification.

Faculty

Current Residents

Contact Us

Mailing Address

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
500 University Dr., HP28
P.O. Box 850
Hershey, PA 17033

General Contact Information

Fax: 717-566-8202

Email: mosterlund@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

Penn State Health also offers