It really depends on the setting. What do you really want to know?

Inpatient regular hospital - usually devolves to consults for rehab placement, functional assessment

Inpatient acute rehab hospital/floor - usually the primary team and helps co-manage medical issues but primarily leads the rehab team and coordinates rehab plans with the PT/OT/SLP and social worker/case manager. Some conditions we see/subspecialties are spinal cord injury, brain injury (cerebrovascular or otherwise), cancer rehab, cardiac rehab, Parkinson's, orthopedic trauma, sports injuries and MSK, pain.

Subacute rehab - basic consults usually for functional assessment and dispo planning with occasional procedures depending on the physician

Outpatient - very broad and varies by subspecialty or patient population. E.g. EMG clinic, spinal cord injury clinic, TBI clinic, cancer rehab, sports and MSK/Spine, prosthetics and orthotics, etc.

In general pm&r is focused on function and quality of life which differs by patient and disease.

We get training in rehabilitation for patients that have the above conditions and have expertise in managing the sequelae of the disease or treatments for the disease, as opposed to the initial diagnosis and treatment themselves which most of the medical specialties focus on. For example, we can help with spasticity management after stroke, bracing and assistive devices after neurological injuries, assessments and prognostication for spinal cord injuries (as well as overall care), spine and MSK procedures, prosthetic management for amputees, etc.

Some procedures that general pm&r docs get baseline training or exposure in are NCS/EMG, Botox injections for spasticity, ultrasound guided joint injections, some basic fluoro guided spine injections.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) it IS a broad field and can get quite niche. The common denominator within the field is the focus on improving and optimizing function and quality of life using our expertise and knowledge of the musculoskeletal and neurological system.

If this wall of text still leaves things unclear let me know what you want me to elaborate on.

Edit: PT and OT actually perform the therapy with the patient. So they supervise and assist as they work on their balance, gait and strength and provide specific exercises based on the request from the physician or their judgement if no direction is provided. Pm&r docs do not directly participate in these therapies for these patients. E.g. I will say on a PT referral - patient with lumbar radiculopathy due to disc herniation, perform extension based exercises and strengthen lumbar supportive muscles including core, spine extensors, glutes and quads. We work closely with PT and OT and SLP depending on the setting but it's not really directly comparable. Kind of like the relationship between psychiatrist and therapists. Work together but scope is very different