Neurosurgery makes pain management curricular breakthroughs

Leaders in neurosurgery have taken a hands-on approach to training residents with an eye toward filling knowledge and skill gaps —one such gap is pain management. Learn how they’re making strides in preparing residents for the board exam and more effective patient care. Neurosurgery “boot camps” were created in 2009 to help fill in some of the knowledge gaps in resident training. Neurosurgeons in training attend one boot camp at the start of internship and another before becoming a junior resident.“The boot camps … use extensive simulation labs with ICU crises where you have a mannequin on a table with an ICU monitor,” said Christopher Winfree, MD, an assistant professor of neurological surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. “They go th rough all kinds of scenarios. The important thing is to have the residents trained across all of the topics they need to know.” The Neurological Surgery Milestone Project, developed in 2013, was created to further formalize the content of residency training. The content addresses areas such as procedural skills, professionalism and interpersonal relations with colleagues and patients. The Milestones also facilitate resident assessment to make sure residents are making appropriate progress as they go through their training.Training neurosurgical residents in pain management Six years ago, Dr. Winfree became president of the pain section of the two major neurosurgery groups, t...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news