Maverick Medical Education was formed with many goals in mind, but one of those goals, which is always in the forefront of our minds, is how to help educate medical professionals around the country in ways that will reduce the number of times opioid prescriptions are given. One of the best ways we can support medical professionals in this attempt is to give multiple resources, techniques, and methods to help prevent and manage pain in their patients.
Danger of Opioids
The use of opioids comes with significant risk, which isn’t always discussed enough with medical providers and certainly not with patients when they are seeking pain management. Whether post injury or pre surgery, a patient is truly looking for relief and can frequently get trapped in a mindset of a quick option to reduce their pain without fully considering the side effects and impact that may follow. Often, the issue patients were seeking relief from can become compacted, leading to further medical expenses and procedures. One study showed “patients with occupational lower back pain who are prescribed opioids early are more likely to receive MRIs, more likely to have surgery, and more likely to be disabled one year after the incident.” The study goes on to discuss as many as 6% of patients will still be using opioid medication for pain relief a year later as well. Opioids are often not treating the problem, but masking it with dangerous side effects like addiction, gastrointestinal issues, and additional issues discussed here.
Other Options
Many of the Mavericks that have gone through our training and work in a variety of medical settings, feel strongly about a multi modal pain approach, with an emphasis on finding the true source of pain and coming up with an opioid free plan that the patient will actually follow. A number of our Maverick Courses build on one another to teach nerve blocks that are crucial in a hospital or pain clinic setting to help patients do just that. In courses like our Advanced Pain Management series, a clinician may learn how to perform radio frequency ablation, which allows the body time to heal without the pain they may be experiencing from an injury or strain. They also could learn the benefits of Cryotherapy treatments for peripheral nerves. In the Regional Anesthesia Course, blocks like the Supraclavicular and Interscalene are taught to provide the relief a patient may need for surgery, medical procedure, or due to some chronic pain they have been experiencing.
Our Courses
Each of our courses contains an online portion and in person lab training. The courses are available to you immediately, so you can begin working through modules from our Maverick instructors right away. Because they are accessible from any internet connected device, you can work through these modules within your own schedule, which, as medical professionals, can be a little hectic. Once we convene together for the lab portion of your course, you will have hands-on guidance with life models and high-quality pulsatile cadavers with guidance from our Maverick.
To learn more about the Maverick courses we offer, see our course schedule. We are excited to continue training more on the techniques and methods they need to help patients manage their pain, without opioids.
