Anesthesia as a route to palliative care?

[greatgefilte]

Hi all,

Greetings from the midst of gen surg. I'm knee deep in bowels and thinking about career options as I'm struggling to plan electives.

I was wondering if anyone's considering or heard of anyone who's attempted to set up a career in palliative care after an anesthesiology residency. It seems like it would be a great way to get a good mix of physiology, procedures, and significant patient contact, but most of the palliative care docs I know of have gone through the family medicine route. Is this something that could work, or is it too much of a stretch? Any ideas would be most welcome!

[ploughboy]

Hi all,

Greetings from the midst of gen surg. I'm knee deep in bowels and thinking about career options as I'm struggling to plan electives.

I was wondering if anyone's considering or heard of anyone who's attempted to set up a career in palliative care after an anesthesiology residency. It seems like it would be a great way to get a good mix of physiology, procedures, and significant patient contact, but most of the palliative care docs I know of have gone through the family medicine route. Is this something that could work, or is it too much of a stretch? Any ideas would be most welcome!

There's a doc at Western who did that. I'm blanking on her name at the moment, though.

[Satsuma]

It isn`t really a stretch at all.

But I guess you need to ask yourself what it is you want to do in terms of palliative care.

You could do a fellowship in, say, regional blocks etc. and provide pain management that way to palliative patients, without having to deal with the social stuff etc that comes with the rest of palliative care.

I have not met anyone anesthesiology + palliative. This probably has more to do with personality and interests then incompatibility of the fields. Alot of people who choose anesthesiology find not having to deal with social issues and ongoing care a pro, so may not be inclined to do palliative. I am not sure but I imagine the pay in palliative would be less than anesthesia. Also, anesthesiologists can be involved with the palliative care team in doing blocks etc without having to do a palliative care fellowship.

[greatgefilte]

There's a doc at Western who did that. I'm blanking on her name at the moment, though.

Ah, I think I know who you're talking about, thanks for the reminder.

[TimmyMax]

Hey,

Indeed, there are several anaesthesia-trained physicians in London who are considered "palliative care" providers, one actually does paeds palliative care. I can think of at least three that do palliative care (two adult, one paeds) at LHSC.

I'm not aware that there is a specific fellowship program out there for palliative care, but of the ones I know, two of them were chronic pain specialists (not sure if they were fellowship-trained though), so that is a road that you may consider pursuing.

[greatgefilte]

Hey, just wanted to update y'all after speaking with the previously-mentioned anesthesiologist-turned-palliative physician. It seems that the Royal College is likely going to endorse the creation of a specific palliative sub-specialty training program, which will apparently be administered by IM, but open to residents from a number of specialties. Meanwhile, the CCFP is likely to have palliative care as a 3rd year added competency program in the near future. In essence, the current palliative fellowships, which are open to both CCFP and Royal College grads, are going to split into college-dependent training pathways. But from what I understand, if all goes according to plan, it should be straight-forward for anesthesia grads to do accredited palliative sub-specialty training in the future.