What you wish you knew before pain fellowship

[Nonphysiologic]

Gonna start in a week. Any sage advice people wish they knew before starting?

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[Yo GabbaPentin]

Gonna start in a week. Any sage advice people wish they knew before starting?

Karate. I wish I knew karate.

 

[Doctodd]

what corticosteroids REALLY do

 

[willabeast]

remember you will only be there for a year. everyone knows it. don't try to fix anything.

 

[101N]

Karate. I wish I knew karate.

Naw, I know Karate. It didn't help.

 

[Disciple]

A little off subject, but reminds me of this post from a while ago.

i have had a few patients like this COMPLETELY TURN AROUND by becoming black belts in martial arts. i have no idea how, but the difference was striking.
ask her if she was molested as a child. then tell her to get a black belt.
of course insurance will not cover the wing chun or whatever...

Forget putting Tai-Chi or Qi-gong in the functional restoration program. Have your patient get a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Have an idea of why it would work. Unfortunately it would take 8-10 years.

 

[PMR2008]

Most fellowships are academic. They do not prepare you on how to run a practice or manage staff. Wish I had spent time with the office manager and billing/coding department.

 

[lonelobo]

Most fellowships are academic. They do not prepare you on how to run a practice or manage staff. Wish I had spent time with the office manager and billing/coding department.

Agreed.. I feel there is a reason many of the Attending Docs are in Academics, they couldn't make it in private practice for lack of business savvy

 

[Ligament]

1. You are there for a year, everybody knows it. Don't attempt to make any big changes to the program.
2. Do not assume your attending know anything at all about the business of private practice.
3. Spend as much time as you can learning about the business of private practice if you want to do that. Spend time with the billers, office manager, etc.

 

[Ducttape]

4. look at as many fluoroscopic images and MRIs as you can.
5. if you are anesthesia, spend as much time as possible learning physical exam skills.
6. if you are PMR, spend as much time learning about the drugs you will be using, and how to feel comfortable in code settings.
7. if you are neurology, you are set. (just kidding).

 

[BobBarker]

Yes, look at images and go to rad and learn. My attendings at the university couldn't read images. you need to look at your images to determine what is going on for yourself.

8. Non anesthesia - learn how to put in an LMA. this is mandatory.

 

[Dr. Ice]

Acknowledge that there is no real medical literature to substantiate doing anything in a series no matter what your dippy attending says or does

Recognize that the real world becomes very real when it's your own patients that you're responsible for

Learn physical exam and learn to read imaging

Spend a lot of independent time learning billing and coding which is probably more important than anything else in this world

Get ready to have a great year. Fellowship was my first or second most favorite year in all of training

 

[clubdeac]

Make sure to glean as many pearls from your attendings as possible. If you do a neurosurgery rotation, pick their brains incessantly. If you do a palliative care, pick their brains incessantly. If you do an addiction rotation, pick their brains incessantly. If you do just bread and butter pain, pick their brains incessantly. Looking back I think I sometimes held back thinking I was asking a stupid question or would look stupid..... how stupid of me

 

[paintrain]

I've heard a few good things about the Dannemiller pain lecture series for the pain boards. There are a few threads on sdn about them. Does anyone know if they'd be useful for new fellows? And does anyone have a used version they are willing to sell.. they are like $500 for the most recent 2015 version (ouch!).

 

[willabeast]

i have a zillion isis dvd's. first 100 bucks gets them all.

 

[Ligament]

i have a zillion isis dvd's. first 100 bucks gets them all.

i have a zillion isis dvd's. first 100 bucks gets them all.

I'll take them. PM sent.

 

[oreosandsake]

new dannemiller pain just happened this week in chicago. the lectures also have little variability year to year.

 

[hrmm]

I have the most recent set of Dannemiller videos 2015 (CME approved). And they are real (I bought them myself $470) with all the supplemental material/files. They are excellent.

Selling to whoever bids first. PM if interested.