How To Become A Pain Management Physician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pain management physician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Generally, Pain management Physicians are concerned about their patient's ability to function and their quality of life. They perform an evaluation, diagnosis, and a treatment plan to relieve, reduce, or handle pain and help patients return to everyday actions quickly without operation or heavy reliance on medication.

As a Pain Management Physician, you should treat immediate pain problems such as headaches and many types of long-lasting, chronic pain such as low back pain. You will administer discomfort and coordinate necessary care to be provided, including physical therapy, rehabilitation, counseling, and monitor patient responsiveness to treatment.

You will probably require a premedical Bachelor's degree and MD from a certified medical college. In addition to that, you must possess advanced skills in maintaining a diverse range of pain problems. On top of that, you can make up to $298,872 per year as a Pain Management Physician.

ScorePain Management PhysicianUS Average

Salary

10.0

Avg. Salary $253,724

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.9

Growth rate 28%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.35%

Asian 11.24%

Black or African American 5.46%

Hispanic or Latino 11.97%

Unknown 3.78%

White 67.19%

Gender

female 71.35%

male 28.65%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

9.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a pain management physician

Explore pain management physician education requirements

Most common pain management physician degrees

Bachelor's

37.6 %

Associate

20.9 %

Master's

12.7 %

Start to develop specific pain management physician skills

Skills	Percentages
Pain Management	25.88%
Patients	19.33%
Primary Care	6.95%
Family Practice	6.38%
Rehabilitation	5.89%

Complete relevant pain management physician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pain management physicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pain management physician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pain management physician resumes.

Research pain management physician duties and responsibilities

Work closely with patients to manage their depression and anxiety beginning with initial diagnosis to med-initiation and follow-up care.
Perform prosthetic rehabilitation for amputee patients and participate in workshop on post prosthetic rehabilitation.
Operate EMR (electronic medical record )
Sell OFIRMEV to surgery centers for use in peri-operative protocols as an analgesic therapy.

Prepare your pain management physician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your pain management physician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pain management physician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable pain management physician resume templates

Build a professional pain management physician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your pain management physician resume.