Pain Medicine Clinical Training

Call Duties

Fellows will take home-call during their entire fellowship year of training. There is no in-house call. They will be paired with a chronic pain clinic faculty member during each week of call who is readily available for supervision and guidance. At the end of their call assignment, fellows will be expected to hand over any ongoing clinical care responsibilities to the fellow taking over call responsibilities. Clear guidelines will be provided to fellows on the types of high-acuity or complex situations that would warrant faculty involvement. Fellows will have progressive levels of responsibility based on their level of training and the acuity and complexity of the patient's needs.

Rotations and Electives

Notes:

• Site 1: Rutledge Tower and Rutledge Tower OR
• Site 2: Main University Hospital
• Site 3: Ashley River Tower
• Site 4: Health West Ashley Medical Pavilion
• Site 5: Chuck Dawley Medical Pavilion
• Site 6: Institute of Psychiatry

Chronic Pain Clinic (CPC) rotations are predominately held in 3 ambulatory clinical settings designated on the block schedule as Rutledge Tower, Health West Medical Pavilion, and Chuck Dawley Medical Pavilion. Patients are evaluated for a half day with new or existing chronic pain complaints in the outpatient clinic. The other half of the day is spent performing image-guided procedures in a fluoroscopy suite with the guidance of the supervising Attending. The goal of our training program is to allow fellows greater autonomy as they advance during the fellowship year to prepare them for independent practice.

During the chronic pain rotations, fellows scrub into surgical cases in the Rutledge Tower operating room. They perform spinal cord stimulator trials and implants, dorsal root ganglion trials and implants, basivertebral nerve ablation, minimally invasive lumbar decompression procedures, and other advanced spine procedures under the direction of their supervising Attending. Fellows have ample opportunity for OR cases throughout their fellowship year and average 3-4 OR days per month.

Fellows will have inpatient acute and chronic pain rotations during the fellowship year. They will rotate with palliative care and regional anesthesia consult services during 1-2 blocks. Fellows will learn about management of acute pain and cancer pain while on these rotations. They have opportunities to practice and hone skills in effective communication and interdisciplinary teamwork. Fellows have no additional night or weekend coverage while on these consult services.

Fellows will have additional rotations in Neurology headache clinic for 2 weeks, Behavioral Health/Addiction Medicine for 2 weeks, as well as Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clinic for 2 weeks. All rotations are ambulatory, outpatient clinics taught by core faculty members.

We also provide ample opportunity for electives. Fellows may choose from Sports Medicine, Neuroradiology, Anesthesiology, Pain Psychology, and other electives based on the fellows' interests. We provide protected time for scholarly activities during this block.