Curriculum - Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine

The goal of the program is to teach regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine to physicians interested in sharing the art and science of this field to improve recovery after surgery or hospitalization. The twelve-month training is divided up as follows:

• 6 months clinical regional anesthesia
• 4 months peripheral nerve catheter
• 1 month acute pain service
• 1 month dedicated research

All rotations are at Virginia Mason Medical Center.
 
Regional Anesthesia (REG): Fellows will be assigned to provide anesthetics in the operating room under the supervision of attending anesthesiologists. Fellows will have priority to cases with a high likelihood of utilizing regional anesthesia, i.e. orthopedic surgery, hand surgery, foot surgery, sports medicine procedures, as well as abdominal or thoracic cases.

Peripheral Nerve Catheter Team (PNC): Fellows will be responsible for the administration and management of all continuous peripheral nerve blocks (CPNBs) placed for inpatients and outpatients in the Virginia Mason system. This time is considered the practice of acute pain medicine.

Acute Pain Service (APS): Fellows will spend a dedicated month on our hospital's consultant pain service which provides acute and chronic pain relief for patients that require specialty expertise beyond that provided by the primary inpatient service caring for them. During this month, fellows will provide care to a variety of patients with both surgical and nonsurgical pain, including oncology patients.

Research: Fellows will be assigned to four weeks of academic time. This rotation will be spent on an academic project approved by the department. This work may include moving an existing project forward or creating a new research or quality improvement initiative.