pain managment?

[DOapplicant]

i apologize for my ignorance on this matter. i know what general anesth does.
but what does pain management exactly do.

if someone could tell or direct me to a good website that explains what a day in the life of pain does i would be very thankful.

also is it one of the more competitive fellowships?

 

[Laryngospasm]

i apologize for my ignorance on this matter. i know what general anesth does.
but what does pain management exactly do.

if someone could tell or direct me to a good website that explains what a day in the life of pain does i would be very thankful.

also is it one of the more competitive fellowships?

By far the most competitive fellowship, spend about half the week seeing new and chronic pain pts, the other half doing procedures more or less, such as LESI, nerve blocks, Spinal cord stimulators etc, minimal if any call. Good life for many people, if you can deal with the patient population.

 

[DOapplicant]

thanks so much for the reply laryngospasm.

is this a field where you have to deal w/a lot of malingering? i understand there is bad that comes with the good in every field. but does this end up taking up a large portion of your time.

 

[dpat81]

exactly how competitive is the pain fellowship?? is it on par to getting a GI fellowship from IM?? thanks

 

[Laryngospasm]

exactly how competitive is the pain fellowship?? is it on par to getting a GI fellowship from IM?? thanks

First, just so there is no confusion, I havent done a pain fellowship, I only speak from my months of experience while on pain. Yes there is malingering, and pretty much any other type of psych problem you can imagine. Pain is a very subjective thing, and some people are incapacitated with pain that others would still go to work with. Its a difficult subject, however there is probably much room for growth and development of the field.

No, it is not as competitive as GI, at least from my understanding of GI fellowships. You may have trpuble getting one of the best interventional fellowships, but you should be able to get one somewhere.