Job Summary
The majority of your time is spent in out-patients clinics with the Sports and Exercise Medicine (SEM) team and the Rheumatology team.
You are primarily attached to the SEM team and attend the weekly Complex MSK or OxSport clinics and monthly Paediatric OxSport clinics as well as injection clinics throughout the week and long COVID clinics on Thursdays. You also have the opportunity to rotate through clinics offered by the Rheumatology team which can include the EIA (Early Inflammatory Arthritis), CTD (Connective Tissues Disorders), GCA (Giant Cell Arthritis) and General or Complex Rheumatology clinics.
Injection clinics run throughout the week and you have the opportunity to join and gain proficiency with administering joint injections. In Rheumatology led clinics these are land-mark guided injections mainly led by Registrars. In the SEM led clinics these will mainly be USS guided and you have the opportunity to learn USS techniques as well. You also have the opportunity to learn Shockwave techniques depending on the day.
Monday mornings are learning sessions which may be virtual or in-person followed by board rounds with the Rheumatology team after. There are also monthly in-person OxSport meetings which happen the second Monday of every month. Radiology MDTs also on Mondays are a good opportunity to improve your skill in interpreting XR and MRI images and understanding the different presentations of pathologies.
Location(s)
Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital and if you wish there are also Banbury clinics available.
Top tips for extra opportunities (e.g. teaching / skills )
Virtual teaching – Monday mornings
Registrar led teaching sessions – Variable scheduling
Injection clinics – Teaching clinic on Tuesday mornings with lots of time, other injection clinics are run quicker but still good learning
Shockwave clinics – Mondays and Friday afternoons
Improving imaging interpretation with Radiology MDT
OPTIMISE service: This a 3 week program for complex pain – try to arrange this as it’s very useful to attend.
Highlights
This is a very flexible rotation and you make of it what you will!
Great consultants and highly knowledgeable
The team is excellent and very supportive and they are willing to let you learn at your pace.
Great learning especially when you start seeing patients and they make it a point to discuss each case with you and useful input on management plans – great learning for MSK presentation in GP
There are many opportunities for learning in other clinics which you can discuss with your supervisor to arrange observer opportunities.
Very flexible with leave time (if you have your own patient list you need to give adequate time in advance).
Challenges
You make of this rotation what you will!
You need to be organized and know where you are going – this can be tricky because you are only there half the time and the schedule can vary so you may miss some information on schedule changes.
In the beginning there was lots of sitting in with people and some people may not find this very useful.
Some clinics are more useful than others to sit in, some may be a bit too specialized to have the best application in GP setting.