DEVELOPING A PAIN FELLOWSHIP

CURRICULUM BLUEPRINT TO MEET THE

CHALLENGES OF AN EVER-EXPANDING FIELD

AN EDUCATIONAL QI PROJECT

Stephanie G Vanterpool, Matthew B Vance

INTRO

• The current ACME pain fellowship structure provides one year to:

-Impart core knowledge and skills required for safe, professional practice

-Prepare fellows for the board certification exam

-Establish a foundational framework to evaluate and integrate new information,

skills, and procedures

• Our quality improvement goal was to design a comprehensive fellowship curriculum

blueprint that incorporates all necessary content requirements, leverages

multidimensional resources and provides the framework for fellows to integrate new

information.

METHODS

• This curriculum QI process included 3 phases:

1. Content Planning: We identified and categorized the fellowship requirements and

curriculum via the ACGME Program Requirements and the ABA Pain Medicine

Exam Content Outline

2. Resource Identification and Mapping: We mapped textbook chapters to the Pain

Medicine Exam Content. We mapped additional resources, including PubMed

articles, Anesthesia Toolbox resources, and ASRA Success Kits.

3. Schedule Planning: We assigned curriculum content to one of four blocks themed

around the components of Targeted Pain Treatment: ‘Accurate Diagnosis’,

‘Targeted Treatment’, ‘Focus on Function’, and ‘Education and Empowerment’

RESULTS

• The resulting pain fellowship curriculum blueprint (Figure 1) consolidates all

required content, book chapters, other resources, and faculty assignments into an

easy-to-read spreadsheet.

• This blueprint ensures comprehensive coverage of required information, with both

fellows and faculty noting improved structure and understanding using the new

curriculum.

DISCUSSION

• We aimed to create a pain fellowship curriculum blueprint that logically and

structurally incorporates all required content while providing resources for deeper

exploration where needed.

• By meticulously cross-referencing required content with available resources and

structuring the content into a coherent framework, we have developed a living

document that can be updated with new information.

• Future studies will include analyzing ACGME fellowship feedback and comparing

fellow In-Training Exam scores before and after implementing the new curriculum.