Pain Medicine skills and learning outcomes

Clinical conditions

Below is a non-exhaustive but indicative list of clinical conditions that the trainee should have the knowledge and skills to diagnose and manage by the end of their Stage 3 SIA training:

• Acute Pain – Surgical and Non-surgical
• Mechanical neck pain
• Cervical Radicular Pain
• Mechanical Low back pain
• Lumbar radicular pain
• Thoracic spinal pain and chest wall pain
• Sacrococcygeal pain
• Single muscle myofascial syndromes
• Fibromyalgia
• Widespread generalised pain
• Post-surgical scar pain
• Brachial plexus injury
• Lumbosacral plexus injury
• Peripheral nerve injuries
• Peripheral neuropathies
• Pain from vascular insufficiency
• Common headache syndromes
• Cranial nerve neuralgias
• Post-herpetic neuralgia
• Pain from spinal cord injury or pathology
• Phantom limb and stump pain
• Central post-stroke pain
• Complex regional pain syndromes
   

Learning outcomes

The core learning outcomes from Stage 3 SIA pain training is for the doctor to be capable of delivering all aspects of Pain Medicine as an independent practitioner. This implies:

• Having a comprehensive knowledge of Pain Medicine service delivery
• Being able to assess a wide variety of patients with pain using a biopsychosocial model including, history taking, physical examination, psychological assessment and interpretation of investigations
• Being aware of the treatment options available to provide effective management for patients with acute, chronic and cancer pain
• Pharmacology of simple analgesics, opiates, NSAIDs, anticonvulsants, and antidepressant drugs
• Becoming technically proficient in a range of procedures for Pain Medicine.
• Having the communication and organisational skills to be an effective member of the multi-disciplinary Pain Medicine team
• Demonstrates empathy when caring for patients with pain
• Providing clinical leadership in the development of comprehensive pain medicine services, for the benefit of both patients and the organization acting as an effective teacher of Pain Medicine topics
• Being able to assess evidence from research related to Pain Medicine including notes in epidemiology section below
• In addition, the curriculum for advanced pain training, gives further detail on psychological treatments, Interventional treatments, Neuromodulation, and Surgical treatments for pain