Excellence in Ultrasound Education: An Innovative Longitudinal Approach to Bedside Hands-on Ultrasound Teaching

摘要

Background: In 2012 the ACGME included EmergencyUltrasound (EUS) as one of the 23 milestone competenciesfor graduates of an emergency medicine (EM) residency.Current ACEP EUS Guidelines (2008) stress the importanceof emergency physician performed point-of-care ultrasound(POCUS) but do not detail how emergency medicineresidencies should teach POCUS. In 2013, the CORD-AEUSconsensus guidelines outlined key components of a residencyPOCUS curriculum and emphasized the importance of “activehands-on learning.”Educational Objectives: We sought to implement alongitudinal bedside hands-on curriculum to improve ourcurrent POCUS curriculum in light of the CORD-AEUSguidelines. Residents at our institution have an introductoryPOCUS course and an advanced POCUS curriculumintegrated into our modular core lecture series, which includeboth didactics and hands-on scanning. Hands-on scanning forboth components is primarily in the simulation setting. Ourprimary goal was to provide residents with protected time forscanning Emergency Department (ED) patients alongside EUSfaculty members.Curricular Design: We designed Excellence in Ultrasound Education (EUE) sessions (one per resident perEM block lasting 3 hours each) during which small groupsof 5-8 residents of all PGY levels were scheduled to scan inthe ED. Sessions occurred after our weekly conference andincorporated small group (2-4 residents) or independent scantime during which, an EUS faculty member rotated throughgroups in order to provide real-time feedback. Each sessionconcluded with group image review.Impact/Effectiveness: We believe EUE sessions arean effective way to incorporate protected bedside handsonscanning into resident EUS education. One year afterimplementation of EUE, a cross-sectional survey was sent to55 EM residents with a response rate of 67%. Based on surveyresults, EUE sessions were considered a successful addition toresident POCUS curriculum as they increased the majority ofresidents’ confidence with POCUS (Figure 1) and added valueto most residents’ EUS education (Figure 2). In the future wewill increase the amount of hands-on scanning by EUS facultymembers during EUE sessions as 71% of residents wantedmore hands-on scanning.