The fellow will spend 6 months on our regional anesthesia team, which includes five fully equipped peripheral nerve block perioperative bays at our main hospital, as well as a nerve block area at our high-volume out-patient surgery center. We perform over 200 peripheral nerve blocks each month and collaborate with our surgical colleagues to create best practice perioperative pain pathways. The regional nerve block team is made up of a main OR attending, Surgery Center attending, one fellow and one to two residents per month. There is an opportunity to participate with our faculty in international mission trips that include regional anesthesiology.
The fellow will spend three months on the Acute Pain Service (APS) that consists of an attending, three APS RNs, one fellow, and one resident. This group places fluoroscopic guided epidurals for all our main operating room surgeries requiring an epidural (50 per month), coordinates our ERAs protocols, and responds to acute pain consults at our over 400-bed level one trauma hospital.
The year will also include two weeks in our chronic pain clinic, two weeks on our pediatric pain service, one month of orthopedic anesthesia where the fellow will perform and supervise spinals as well as manage intra-op nerve catheters, and one month of dedicated research time.
Our research program is led by RAPM Associate Editor, Dr. Brian Sites. Current research focuses on large database outcomes studies related to regional anesthesiology, opioid prescribing trends, our unique fluoroscopy-guided epidural program, as well as collaboration with our orthopedic colleagues to improve the care of our orthopedic total joint and trauma patients.