There is a critical shortage of rheumatologists in the U.S. The aging of the U.S. population, along with recent changes in healthcare reform, makes it critical for rheumatology practices across the U.S. to plan for the maintenance of accessible, high-quality care for patients. Establishing a collaborative rheumatology practice between a rheumatologist and a nurse practitioner or physician assistant (NP/PA) has been identified as one solution, but there are few rheumatology specialty training opportunities for NPs and PAs. The ARHP has identified the need to provide training for this portion of its membership and is now expanding its offerings for NPs and PAs through four new workshops at the annual meeting in November.
To accommodate growing requests for interactive, hands-on, skill-building courses for rheumatology health professionals at the annual meeting, the Advanced Practice Skills Training Course has been divided into four individual workshops, providing attendees the opportunity to participate in a more concentrated area of discipline or to receive a well-rounded educational experience by attending all four workshops.
This year, two upper and lower musculoskeletal examination workshops will be offered, and will provide adult and pediatric patient volunteers so attendees can examine actual joint changes and receive input from the experts on correct ways to locate them. Upon completion of the workshops, attendees should be able to discuss principles of musculoskeletal physical examination, detect and describe normal and abnormal musculoskeletal physical examination findings, and demonstrate rheumatologic upper and lower musculoskeletal physical examinations using patient volunteers.
Additionally, two Joint Injection Workshops will be offered; the first will provide a review of shoulder and wrist techniques with prosthetics; the second will review the knee and ankle. Upon completion of the workshops, attendees should be able to describe indications for upper- and lower-extremity joint injections and aspiration, identify anatomic landmarks for upper and lower injections using joint prosthetics, and apply principles of upper and lower joint aspiration and injection using joint prosthetics.
Space is limited, so register early! Visit www.rheumatology.org/education to register and for more information.