The objective is to determine the accuracy of foot and ankle joint and soft tissue structure palpation in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) residents using ultrasonography (US) verification. Methods PM&R residents were tested in an outpatient musculoskeletal (MSK) clinic on palpated foot and ankle anatomic structures in a human model. Once the presumed structures were localized, residents marked a 1 cm size circle on the overlying skin with a ink marker. The accuracy of the circle over the joint line and soft tissue structures was verified using US. Results The overall palpation accuracy for 22 joint line and soft tissue structures was 38.0%. Accuracy by foot and ankle region, including the posterior, medial, lateral, plantar, and dorsal were 72.9%, 47.5%, 42.5%, 35% and 7.8% respectively. There was a positive trend with level of education without a statistically significant difference in palpation accuracy (30.4% in PGY-2, 38.3% in PGY-3, 44.2% in PGY-4, p = 0.11). Conclusions Residents in this study demonstrated suboptimal accuracy of foot and ankle anatomic structure identification by palpation. US may be a useful adjunctive tool to advance current methods of teaching musculoskeletal examination skills to PM&R residents.