The State of Disability Awareness Education in PM&R Residency Programs

Background and/or Objectives: People with disabilities represent the largest minority group in the U.S., and experience high rates of healthcare disparities. There has been increased research and advocacy for disability awareness programs in American medical schools, however, there are few studies evaluating the state of disability awareness education in residency programs. Of these studies, none examine Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) residencies, despite PM&R being a field that predominantly cares for people with disabilities. This study aims to evaluate PM&R residencies’ inclusion of disability awareness programs.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting : The online Qualtrics survey was distributed via email through the PM&R residency Program Director Listserv. Two follow-up emails were sent at 2 week intervals.

Participants : All 112 ACGME accredited PM&R residency programs were sent surveys.

Interventions: N/A.

Main Outcome Measures: Percentage of PM&R residencies that include a disability awareness program, reported format and content of existing disability awareness programs, and reported barriers to implementing a disability awareness program.

Results: 52 programs completed surveys (46.4%). 58% reported including a disability awareness program in their residency curriculum. The most common formats were didactic courses/lecture series (82%), adaptive sports experiences (64%), and panels of individuals with disability (or their caregivers) (46%). Physical disabilities were most commonly covered in the curriculum (96%), followed by intellectual disabilities (61%) and sensory disabilities (50%). For residencies without a disability awareness program, the most commonly cited barriers were lack of faculty expertise in disability advocacy education (55%), lack of resources for curriculum development (50%), and lack of faculty time (41%).

Conclusions: Over half of the PM&R residencies surveyed include a disability awareness program. Those that do primarily focus on physical disability and consist of mostly didactics. Barriers to inclusion of disability awareness programs in PM&R residencies include lack of faculty expertise in disability advocacy education, lack of resources for curriculum development, and lack of faculty time.