Application period for Acute Surgical Pain Management Fellowship now open

Enhanced curriculum includes POCUS, ERAS

MTSA is accepting applications for the next cohort of the Acute Surgical Pain Management (ASPM) Fellowship, announced Bill Johnson, DNAP, CRNA, Director of the Fellowship and DNAP Completion program. The application period closes Nov. 30, and classes begin in January 2021.

The objective of the ASPM Fellowship, a component of the AANA Pain Management Curriculum, is to advance the knowledge and skills of CRNAs in acute surgical pain management and prepare them to help meet the growing need for this evidence-based approach. This includes special focus on perioperative point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) hands-on scanning techniques, Johnson said.

“Each faculty member within MTSA’s ASPM Fellowship has a defined area of focus and is an expert in that portion of the Fellowship curriculum,” Johnson added. “This includes research anatomists, pain physiologist, physical therapists, pharmacologist, and clinicians.”

POCUS refers to the use of portable ultrasonography at a patient’s bedside for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Along with its use for pain management, heart, lung and abdominal scanning may reveal sources of hypotension, hypoxemia and other presentations of cardiopulmonary instability, according to module instructor John Shields, DNP, CRNA.

“As POCUS is a major component of perioperative care, this training is vital to independent CRNAs practicing to the full scope of their training. In preparing CRNAs for advanced independent practice, MTSA’s ASPM Fellowship is representative of this trend. To this end advanced POCUS training for nurse anesthetists will be incorporated into online modules and hands-on workshops for Focused Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography (FATE), Focused Assessment using Sonography for Trauma (FAST) and Rapid Ultrasound for Shock and Hypotension (RUSH) protocols,” Shields said.

For more information about the ASPM Fellowship, visit. www.mtsa.edu/fellowship.

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