1611 - Perceived Benefits of and Satisfaction with a State-Wide PM&R Student Fellowship Program

Objectives: This study examines the Rush PM&R medical student fellowship and its reach to medical students across the state of Illinois and the country. We aim to evaluate the perceived benefits students gain from fellowship participation, compare experiences of students at schools with and without home programs, and identify factors contributing to fellowship success to propose a model for expanding similar opportunities nationwide.

Design: We conducted a cross-sectional survey study using Qualtrics, targeting both past and current fellowship participants. The survey was disseminated over 1-month and included Likert scale questions to assess perceived benefits. Responses were stratified by duration of fellowship participation and the presence of a home PM&R program at the respondent’s institution.

Results: Twelve fellowship participants responded to the survey (N=12) with a mixture of medical students (N=9), residents (N=2) and attending (N=1). We found that the highest proportion of participants strongly agreed (72.7%) that the fellowship provided helpful guidance about residency applications, an environment that allowed for the building of meaningful professional relationships, and consistent and diverse volunteering opportunities. We found no statistically significant relationship between the importance of fellowship components (networking, leadership, volunteering, research, ERAS aid, and PM&R knowledge) when numerically ranked by respondents. We found that most participants (81.8%) strongly agreed that the fellowship provided a supportive and inclusive learning environment and that it improved their confidence in pursuing a career in PM&R. The majority of respondents (10/12) did not have a home PM&R residency program and the responses between groups were not significantly correlated.

Conclusions: The Rush PM&R student fellowship offers medical students, particularly those at institutions without attached residency programs, a unique and supportive opportunity to gain knowledge about PM&R. There is potential for additional universities to institute programs based on this framework to encourage wide-spread education about and accessible early exposure to the field.