During their chronic pain rotation, residents will have the opportunity to rotate through the Providence VA Medical Center. Residents will have a unique experience to learn and help treat the veteran population. The team utilizes a multidisciplinary and individualized approach for treating patients with chronic pain. For a more thorough understanding of chronic pain and its multidisciplinary approach, residents will rotate through and observe a variety of services and treatment modalities. Regular didactics on various chronic pain topics are given throughout the month.

The rotation provides a balance of clinical and procedure time. Residents participate in the evaluation and diagnosis of patients with chronic pain conditions in addition to developing and managing a comprehensive treatment plan in the outpatient setting. Throughout the month, residents will have the opportunity to perform image guided procedures and clinic-based treatments such as Botox for migraines, trigger point injections, and occipital nerve blocks. Fluoroscopic-guided interventional pain procedures will include interlaminar and transforaminal epidural steroid injections, caudal epidural steroid injections, medial branch blocks, radiofrequency ablation, and sacroiliac joint injections. In addition, residents will participate in ultrasound-guided procedures, including intra-articular joint injections, tendon sheath injections, genicular nerve blocks, intercostal nerve blocks, and ilioinguinal nerve blocks.