Specialist Interest Module in Acute Inpatient Pain
Southmead Hospital provides Stage 3 trainees with the opportunity to develop expertise in the assessment and management of acute pain in hospitalised patients. Working as part of a dedicated acute pain team, trainees will gain experience across a variety of surgical specialties, learning to deliver safe, timely, and effective analgesia tailored to individual patient needs.
Core interventions include:
- Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) – opioid-based self-administered analgesia with regular monitoring and review
- Ketamine infusions – for complex post-operative pain and opioid-sparing analgesia
- Epidural analgesia – thoracic and lumbar techniques for major abdominal, thoracic, and orthopaedic surgery
- Nerve block infusions – peripheral and truncal catheter techniques for sustained regional anaesthesia
- Complex pain in substance misuse
The module offers opportunities to develop decision-making skills in balancing analgesia with safety, preventing and managing complications, and liaising closely with surgical, nursing, and pharmacy teams. By the end of the attachment, trainees will have gained the skills to lead an acute pain service and integrate advanced analgesic techniques into their future practice.
SIA lead:
Dr Alia Darweish