Pain Medicine Clerkship
Course Number: AN298.01
We offer a three-week Pain Medicine Clerkship to fourth-year UCLA medical students throughout the year (July through June) for one medical student per rotation. The medical student works in the UCLA Comprehensive Pain Centers alongside attending physicians, residents, and fellows. Our pain medicine physicians, all of whom are board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine, offer clinical services to our patients who suffer from a variety of conditions: low back and neck pain, myofascial pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), neuropathic pain, cancer pain, post-herpetic neuralgia, and many more. The interventional treatments range from basic diagnostic nerve blocks such as epidurals, facet medial branch nerve blocks, and sacroiliac joint injections, to sympathetic blocks, chemical neurolysis, radiofrequency ablation, and implantable neurostimulator and infusion pump devices.
Comprehensive evaluation includes complete history and physical examination with full development of a plan of care for each patient. As the basic skills of evaluation and diagnosis are being obtained, the medical student is introduced to the concept of multimodal pain medicine. Our multidisciplinary approach utilizes the many resources at our disposal, including physical and occupational therapy, neurology, neurosurgery, psychology, psychiatry, and addiction medicine.
Learning Objectives
Our Pain Medicine Clerkship emphasizes a wide variety of chronic pain conditions in the out-patient setting. Specific learning objectives include:
- Knowledge of spinal medicine and somatic, neuropathic and visceral pain
- Obtaining the history and physical exam
- Pain procedures: epidural analgesia, sympathetic blocks, neurolytic blocks, radiofrequency lesioning, spinal cord stimulation, and implantation of intrathecal drug delivery systems
- Management of postoperative pain
- Pharmacology of opioids, NSAIDs, membrane-stabilizing agents, antidepressants, local anesthetics.
Schedule
Typical Weekly Schedule
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM | 8:00 - 12:00 Clinic | 7:00 - 8:00 Didactics 8:00 - 12:00 Clinic | 7:00 - 8:00 Grand Rounds 8:00 - 12:00 Clinic | 7:00 - 8:00 Didactics 8:00 - 12:00 Clinic | 8:00 - 12:00 Procedures |
| PM | 1:00 - 4:00 Clinic | 1:00 - 4:30 Clinic | 1:00 - 4:00 Clinic/Procedures | 1:00 - 4:00 Clinic | 1:00 - 4:00 Procedures |
As our Pain Medicine Clerkship is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge and clinical training in the discipline, it is very important to be in attendance every day as scheduled. Medical students are encouraged to plan their rotation around this expectation. Any anticipated absences must be approved by the Course Director prior to the start of the rotation.
If you have any questions, please contact the Medical Student Coordinator, Karen Larranaga, via email at .