Life as a Pain Medicine Resident in Training
Three Residents in Training share their experiences of life training and working in Pain Medicine today...
If you're a Resident in Training, we would love to about your insights and learnings from life in Pain Medicine.
To share email contact@fpm.ac.uk
Mohammed Ebeid, ST6 and APT:
- What has been most valuable during your pain training?
The change we can potentially make in patient lives.
- Is there anything that you would have liked to do more of during your pain training?
Continuity of care: although it happened few times. When you see a patient in clinic, formulate a treatment plan, review later after injection/medications, and see the outcome. Usually this chain is not possible every time, but when it happens , it shows you the difference we can make in people lives.
- What do you wish you had known before you started your pain training?
Its not always greener on the other side. You have to deal with the challenges.
- What advice would you give someone considering pain training?
When someone asks me why did you choose pain as your SIA, my answer is “ because I don’t feel the time passing while I am doing the clinics/lists . I just enjoy it”.
Anonymous:
- What has been most valuable during your pain training?
Being encouraged to view the patient as a whole. Freedom and flexibility to help develop a service.
- Is there anything that you would have liked to do more of during your pain training?
Access to more advanced interventions e.g neuromodulation and intrathecal pumps
- What do you wish you had known before you started your pain training?
How quickly the year would go! It is a unique time to be curious and experience different areas and services. You will probably not have this flexibility again in your career! This takes time and organisation. Come up with a wish list early of different things you would like to see and shadow and make contact early.
- What advice would you give someone considering pain training?
It is easy to say being the other side but don't let the FFPMRCA completely dominate your experience. It is an important and time consuming part of training. But I will reluctantly admit that it has made me a far more rounded pain doctor for undertaking it. And helped underpin my knowledge with strong foundations.
Anonymous:
- What has been most valuable during your pain training?
Face to face patient contact
MDT clinics, especially physiotherapy assessments
New FPM e-learning program. Thank you!
Consultant colleagues interested in training you
- Is there anything that you would have liked to do more of during your pain training?
More face to face patient clinics More structured training/advice with regards to appropriate depth and breadth of knowledge, and exam requirement
- What do you wish you had known before you started your pain training?
How much there was to learn!
- What advice would you give someone considering pain training?
You probably need to do the exam now. It’s still not required but more and more are doing it - try to look at relevant books and revisit FRCA knowledge re medications and neurobiology of pain prior to starting your SIA. Consultation skills seem to be the real key to being a sucessful pain clinician but won’t come up in the exam reading. I wish I had got more reading out of the way then I could focus more on consultations!