How competative are Pain Management Fellowships?

[clc8503]

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Out of curiosity, how competative are Pain Mangement Fellowships. I tried to do a search but I could not find what I was looking for. Do they work with there patients in clinics, similar to the way primary care physician do (I do realize the scope of practice IS DIFFERENT) I'm trying to get a mental picture of this.

Thanks

 

[ThinkFast007]

Out of curiosity, how competative are Pain Mangement Fellowships. I tried to do a search but I could not find what I was looking for. Do they work with there patients in clinics, similar to the way primary care physician do (I do realize the scope of practice IS DIFFERENT) I'm trying to get a mental picture of this.

Thanks

never shadowed one. but from what i hear, yes, you do follow pts etc. Basically u are sorta like a PCP, cept you mk 6x as much.

from what i heard from the pain docs i talked to (but as i said i didnt shadow them or anything), most of the pts are drug seekers and druggies, etc. He told me that its a depressing site and infact was warning me against the whole field of pain mgt. But then again he drives a nice jag, lives in a phat house, etc.

I guess teh word 'drug seeker' isnt really used nowadays because there's that push for pain not being a able to objectively IDed and you should listen to the pt, etc. But....that was his take on it. He was like, "i'm glad i do pain only once a week".

 

[clc8503]

never shadowed one. but from what i hear, yes, you do follow pts etc. Basically u are sorta like a PCP, cept you mk 6x as much.

from what i heard from the pain docs i talked to (but as i said i didnt shadow them or anything), most of the pts are drug seekers and druggies, etc. He told me that its a depressing site and infact was warning me against the whole field of pain mgt. But then again he drives a nice jag, lives in a phat house, etc.

I guess teh word 'drug seeker' isnt really used nowadays because there's that push for pain not being a able to objectively IDed and you should listen to the pt, etc. But....that was his take on it. He was like, "i'm glad i do pain only once a week".

Thanks for your reply. I realize that any fellowship will be competative, but how competative is Pain Management compared to the other Anesthesiology fellowships? That's the main thing I'm curious about right now.

 

[VentdependenT]

Thanks for your reply. I realize that any fellowship will be competative, but how competative is Pain Management compared to the other Anesthesiology fellowships? That's the main thing I'm curious about right now.

Depends on what program you are interested in I guess. I think if you are even moderately motivated about gearing your CV towards pain (i.e. no insane pain research) then you should match somewhere. I know a few people who went into pain and they didn't express any concerns about it being ultra competitive.

The market seems good right now however and that is one of the major factors for the decline of competition in anes fellowships. I'll ask the fellows at my program when I'm on call next and find out the inside poop.

No more clinic for this guy. Interventional sounds tempting though.

 

[sevoflurane]

I've heard of pain doc's having 1-2 half day clinics a week... the rest of their time entails procedures, procedures, procedures.... +/- OR time running gas. Sounds varied and tempting.... but the chronic pain population can be demanding at times. Celiac plexus blocks are pretty cool and worth while in chronic abdominal pain, particularly pancreatic cancer pain.

 

[rexed]

In my class of 12 residents this year, 3 of us are going into pain, and 1 is planning on a regional fellowship followed by a pain fellowship....

Pain is getting a bit more popular these days...

 

[DrDre']

Some fellowship directors have spelling bees before choosing candidates... 🙂

 

[Myotonia]

I heard that there are 3-4 residents of class of 18, 1 of them is a chief resident with super high board scores applying this year. They say that it will be a very competitive year. I donno.

 

[timtye78]

Competitive in some locations, I am sure. In others, not so sure. I know of a pain mgt program that last year took a FMG MD, then the next year accepted a PM&R doc. Doesn't seem like too many AMGs are interested aound here, even throughout Texas, where I am originally from, are seriously interested in the field after completion of the general residency training and weighing other offers like $300K plus to start.

I think it is just like residency application process. If you deem yourself a non-competitive applicant, just do the best you can, and apply to a higher number of locations, also apply to your home program, if you have one. I think it depends on how bad you want something. If you want to do pain mgmt, and don't care if you have to live in bumblef* for another year, the competition might not be as fierce.

 

[Epidural]

Not sure about Oklahoma, but applications are definitely up this year from what I've heard from applicants and attendings throughout the country. The competitiveness has increased considerably each year for several years now. At the Harvard programs, there are 6 MGH residents applying, 8 at BIDMC, and 5 residents + 1 assistant professor at BWH who have applied.