Piloting a Graduate Medical Education Point-of-Care Ultrasound Curriculum.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Ferre, Robinson M Russell, Frances M Peterson, Dina Zakeri, Bita Herbert, Audrey Nti, Benjamin Goldman, Mitchell Wilcox, James G Wallach, Paul M
Editor	Muacevic, Alexander Adler, John R
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	Objective As point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) use grows, training in graduate medical education (GME) is increasingly needed. We piloted a multispecialty GME POCUS curriculum and assessed feasibility, knowledge, and comfort with performing POCUS exams. Methods Residents were selected from the following residency programs: internal medicine, family medicine, emergency medicine, and a combined internal medicine/pediatrics program. Didactics occurred through an online curriculum that consisted of five modules: physics and machine operation, cardiac, lung, soft tissue, and extended focused sonography in trauma applications. Residents completed a pre- and post-curriculum questionnaire, as well as knowledge assessments before and after each module. One-hour hands-on training sessions were held for each module. Differences between pre- and post-participation questionnaire responses were analyzed using the Wilcoxon rank sum. Results Of the 24 residents selected, 21 (86%) were post-graduate year two or three, and 16 (65%) were from the internal medicine program. Eighteen (67%) residents reported limited prior POCUS experience. All pre- to post-knowledge assessment scores increased (p<0.05). Statistically significant increases pre- to post-curriculum were found for frequency of POCUS use (p = 0.003), comfort in using POCUS for assessing for abdominal aortic aneurysm, soft tissue abscess detection, undifferentiated hypotension and dyspnea, cardiac arrest and heart failure (p<0.025); and competency in machine use, acquiring and interpreting images and incorporating POCUS into clinical practice (p<0.001). All participants felt the skills learned during this curriculum were essential to their future practice. Conclusions In this pilot, we found using a combination of online and hands-on training to be feasible, with improvement in residents' knowledge, comfort, and use of POCUS.
Journal	Cureus
Volume Number	14
DOI	10.7759/cureus.27173
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9393314
Issue Number	7
PubMed reference number	36017274
e-ISSN	21688184
Language	English
Publisher	Cureus
Publisher Date	2022-07-23
Publisher Place	Palo Alto (CA)
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	pilot project residency curriculum online medical education graduate medical education (gme) point of care ultrasound (pocus)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine