How To Become A Physical Medicine Physician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a physical medicine physician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Adrienne Flight

A physical medicine physician is a medical professional that diagnoses and treats disorders with the aid of physiotherapy. They rehabilitate patients physically, mentally, and occupationally and record the results of the diagnosis, treatment used, and patients' outcomes. The physical medicine physician examines patients to assess mobility, cognition, and strength. As the physical medicine physician, you assess what characterizes the pain your patient is facing, like the intensity, location, or duration with standardized procedures. You also make arrangements to manage the disabling conditions of your patients; for example, conditions like neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal trauma, acute and chronic pain, deformity, cardiac diseases, etc.

The physical medicine physician collaborates with other professionals like therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech pathologists, neuropsychologists, psychologists, social workers, or medical technicians to carry out patient rehabilitation. With a little experience, you can earn as much as $111,440, while experienced physical medicine physicians can earn over $208,000 annually.

What general advice would you give to a physical medicine physician?

Adrienne Flight

Assistant Professor, Berklee College of Music

The advice I would give is to engage as deeply as possible with learning opportunities. Learn as much as you can about how to stay physically safe in a pandemic, how to properly clean instruments, and how to use a variety of music therapy interventions and tools. The skills that students are learning about telehealth will remain important for a long time, so I hope that students and potential employers do not underestimate the value of the experiences students are having throughout this pandemic. The same is true for all we are experiencing and learning about social justice, as these important lessons are critical to the future in the long term.

ScorePhysical Medicine PhysicianUS Average

Salary

10.0

Avg. Salary $196,716

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.16%

Asian 19.91%

Black or African American 3.79%

Hispanic or Latino 6.43%

Unknown 4.09%

White 65.62%

Gender

female 52.27%

male 47.73%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a physical medicine physician

Explore physical medicine physician education requirements

Most common physical medicine physician degrees

Bachelor's

39.5 %

Doctorate

34.9 %

Master's

9.3 %

Start to develop specific physical medicine physician skills

Skills	Percentages
Rehabilitation	42.41%
Physical Medicine	26.79%
Physical Therapy	9.97%
Family Practice	7.21%
Internal Medicine	4.50%

Complete relevant physical medicine physician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New physical medicine physicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a physical medicine physician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real physical medicine physician resumes.

Research physical medicine physician duties and responsibilities

Manage multidisciplinary teams and achieve excellent patient outcomes in inpatient rehabilitation settings.
Assist with managing chronic illnesses including diabetes, hypertension, and CHF.
Provide physician input for the development of rehabilitation order care sets for Cerner's EMR software.
Maintain current HIPPA, OSHA and other govern files.

Prepare your physical medicine physician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your physical medicine physician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a physical medicine physician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable physical medicine physician resume templates

Build a professional physical medicine physician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your physical medicine physician resume.

Apply for physical medicine physician jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a physical medicine physician job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average physical medicine physician salary

The average physical medicine physician salary in the United States is $196,716 per year or $95 per hour. Physical medicine physician salaries range between $99,000 and $389,000 per year.

Average physical medicine physician salary

$196,716 Yearly

$94.58 hourly

What is a physical medicine physician and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a physical medicine physician?

Key steps to become a physical medicine physician

Explore physical medicine physician education requirements

Most common physical medicine physician degrees

Start to develop specific physical medicine physician skills

Complete relevant physical medicine physician training and internships

Research physical medicine physician duties and responsibilities

Prepare your physical medicine physician resume

Choose from 10+ customizable physical medicine physician resume templates

Apply for physical medicine physician jobs

How did you land your first physical medicine physician job

Average physical medicine physician salary

How do physical medicine physicians rate their job?