St Vincent’s has a long history of excellence in regional anaesthesia and has pioneered many techniques in Australia. Our regional anaesthesia fellowships aim to deliver an experience which allow our trainees to become highly skilled regional anaesthesia practitioners.
We offer 2 regional anaesthesia fellowships per year, with staggered 6 monthly start times (Feb/Aug).
In the first 6 months of your fellowship, the expectation is that you will be upskilling in ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia, so that in the second 6 months you can take on more of a teaching role within the department. We also perform a lot of TTE and other POCUS, and this will also be taught as part of the fellowship (gastric and lung ultrasound).
We perform a wide variety of nerve blocks for different types of surgery including:
-
Orthopaedics (Arthroplasty/Trauma/Sarcoma)
-
Plastic surgery
-
Vascular surgery
-
General surgery
-
Urology
-
Thoracic
There are opportunities to get involved in research and teaching projects, as well as audit and the department is supportive of those wishing to develop skills in these areas. We regularly partake in research projects including regional and POCUS studies.
In terms of the fellowship structure, we do not employ a block room model, and so most fellows achieve between 150-200 blocks over the course of the year. Because you also retain exposure to the other cases that are performed in our hospital, you will also ensure you do not deskill in other areas of anaesthesia such as double lumen tubes, awake fibre optic intubation, and anaesthesia for complex cases.
Any questions regarding the specifics of the regional anaesthesia fellowship can be sent to Dr Will Watson ([email protected]).
