Anesthesia residents that are planning on doing a pain fellowship, what made you want to?

[Spongeman7]

M2 here just considering going into anesthesia and potentially pain, and was wondering what made you want to go into pain since I know the day to day is quite different from general anesthesia. Also, did you always plan on going into pain and you just had to get through anesthesia residency? Or was it something you realized after starting residency. If you always knew you wanted to do pain, was there a reason you went the anesthesia instead of PM&R or other route?

Thanks so much for your responses in advance!

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[sevo00]

What makes you want to go into pain as a M2?

 

[Dr. Rude]

What makes you want to go into pain as a M2?

 

[Spongeman7]

What makes you want to go into pain as a M2?

From what I've shadowed so far, I like the procedures they do (blocks/stim/ablation/botox), I feel like what you do for the patients only helps as they are already in pain so it's nice to be able to give relief sometimes. The eventual 9-5 hours with decent salary is appealing too. I could change for sure, but as of now I am quite interested

 

[nimbus]

Ask in the pain forum. You’ll probably get better answers there. I personally never wanted anything to do with chronic pain management and I hated every clinic rotation. That’s why I ended up in anesthesia.

 

[Hoya11]

From what I've shadowed so far, I like the procedures they do (blocks/stim/ablation/botox), I feel like what you do for the patients only helps as they are already in pain so it's nice to be able to give relief sometimes. The eventual 9-5 hours with decent salary is appealing too. I could change for sure, but as of now I am quite interested

It’s hard to understand what you are witnessing at your stage. Seems like a lot of good folks getting some good pain relief from cool procedures.. give it some time and reevaluate after you are more immersed in the realities of practicing medicine

 

[dozitgetchahi]

It’s hard to understand what you are witnessing at your stage. Seems like a lot of good folks getting some good pain relief from cool procedures.. give it some time and reevaluate after you are more immersed in the realities of practicing medicine

Yeah…I’m rheumatology and I think of the misguided patients who end up in my office, whom I end up sending off to pain management…the idea of having an entire clinic panel made up of those people makes me nauseated

 

[Agast]

I was interested in pain after rotating through the clinic after already spending some time in the ORs. I would have been fine with anesthesiology but I really missed talking to patients and having a long term relationship with them. But you can’t really think of it as an 8-5 job. You’re still responsible for the patient after hours if you do a procedure. You will be expected to prescribe the medications PCPs won’t touch. You don’t get to detach from your clinic responsibilities on vacation the way an anesthesiologist can - that’s the beauty of shift work.

 

[Laryngospasm]

M2 here just considering going into anesthesia and potentially pain, and was wondering what made you want to go into pain since I know the day to day is quite different from general anesthesia. Also, did you always plan on going into pain and you just had to get through anesthesia residency? Or was it something you realized after starting residency. If you always knew you wanted to do pain, was there a reason you went the anesthesia instead of PM&R or other route?

Thanks so much for your responses in advance!

When you are the one explaining to 20-30 or more patients a day that no you can’t just take more medication because you hurt, and no I Won’t give you what the referring doctor was giving You just because they sent you, and yes I was a unable to get your procedure approved, and no I can’t fix what the spine surgeons did to you and no lifelong escalation of opioids is not the answer… well I have many more but hopefully you get the point.

It is absolutely exhausting. It is simply impossible for a student to have any idea of the effect this takes on you. Combine this with continually decreasing reimbursement and seeing more and more and doing a crappier job of treating the individual to stay afloat and it’s rough.

 

[kidthor]

Asking residents why they want to do a pain fellowship is the wrong question. You should be asking boarded pain physicians why they went into pain and what tips they have regarding the future.

 

[DG51]

M2 here just considering going into anesthesia and potentially pain, and was wondering what made you want to go into pain since I know the day to day is quite different from general anesthesia. Also, did you always plan on going into pain and you just had to get through anesthesia residency? Or was it something you realized after starting residency. If you always knew you wanted to do pain, was there a reason you went the anesthesia instead of PM&R or other route?

Thanks so much for your responses in advance!

Money and lifestyle, which is equally as attainable doing general anesthesia without a fellowship at the moment. Hence why suddenly there's a lot less residents claiming to be fascinated with the pathophys of chronic pain.

Disclaimer...I'm not a pain doc.

 

[nimbus]

Money and lifestyle, which is equally as attainable doing general anesthesia without a fellowship at the moment. Hence why suddenly there's a lot less residents claiming to be fascinated with the pathophys of chronic pain.

Disclaimer...I'm not a pain doc.

But a disproportionate number of AOA types still claim to be fascinated by skin