Pain Management

[geekinthepink]

What do you guys know about Pain Management pharmacists? Does your school offer any rotations in this specialty? Do your local hospitals employ Pain Management pharmacists? Also, do you know of any residency positions that allow specialization in Pain Management?

One of our local hospitals just recently hired a pharmacist to start up this service and I was just wondering how common these positions are. I know that JCAHO considers pain to be the new "5th vital sign"... is that a recent initiative? Do you think we'll see more people specializing in this area in the future?

This is a really interesting area of practice to me and I don't really know where to look to find more info about it, so I thought I'd check with you guys. (and of course I will also check with professors etc, but it's nice to get more thoughts on the subject)

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[WVUPharm2007]

Huh, 5th vital sign. I suppose if you feel pain, that means you're still alive. Though if you can convey the existence or non-existence of pain to another person, I would imagine that would imagine that it would be more useful in determining the vitality of a person.

But who am I.

Anyway, yeah, pain management isn't a rotation at WVU. I would have signed up for it if I could have.

 

[sdn1977]

Pain management pharmacists are a very big deal in CA.

We have 3 big pain clinics here & a couple of hospice's who employ pain management pharmacists.

But...a good rotation to take even if you don't want to do this as a specialty because hospital pharmacists have to be able to titrate &/or convert a pt from po to IV or vice versa to get the pt home.

 

[dgroulx]

UF offers several pain management rotations. It was also the focus of cases in therapeutics. Our law & ethics class dealt with a lot of pain cases and how people are not treated because of fear of being seen as a drug dealer.

Most people with pain are not interested in getting high, they just want their pain treated. We have lots of seniors in Florida and the majority of them have pain. I'm only 50 and I still wake up with pain every morning, it continues through the day, and is there when I go to bed. I know it's just going to get worse as I get older.

With our population aging, I believe that we will see more pain management clinics.

 

[Trancelucent1]

I'm doing a pain management rotation. UF offerred a few. Mine is one that a lot of people try to get b/c it's with one of the leading pain management pharmacists. I'm looking forward to it, the month before I'm also doing a hospice/palliative care rotation which deals with pain management to a point also. Right now I'm at a relatively small 400 bed hospital which is trying to start up a pain management pharmacy program. I think this is going to be something that is done more and more in the future.

 

[firefighter9015]

In the state of KY there is only one JCAHO approved pain clinic. Our school does offer a fourth year rotation there, starting this fall. I think that it will possibly be an area that is on the rise especially with JCAHOs new initiative!

 

[Hpower12]

I have a pain management rotation also, I think it is with the pain doc or anesthesiologist(no clue if it is spelled right) so not sure exactly what I will learn.

 

[geekinthepink]

Thanks for all the responses!