Abstract
BackgroundPOCUS is a growing field in medical education, and an imaging modality ideal for children given the lack of ionizing radiation, ease of use, and good tolerability. A 2019 literature review revealed that no US pediatric residency programs integrated obligatory POCUS curricula. Our objective was to provide a formalized POCUS curriculum over multiple years, and to retrospectively assess improvement in resident skills and comfort.MethodsDuring intern year, pediatric residents received didactics and hands-on scanning opportunities in basic POCUS applications. Their evaluation tools included pre- and post-surveys and tests, and a final performance exam. In the second and third years of residency, all participants were required to complete 8 hours per year of POCUS content review and additional hands-on training. An optional third-year curriculum was offered to interested residents as career-focused education elective time.ResultsOur curriculum introduced POCUS topics such as basic and advanced cardiac, lung, skin/soft tissues and procedural based ultrasound to all pediatric residents. Among first-year residents, application-specific results showed POCUS comfort level improved by 61–90%. Completed evaluations demonstrated improvement in their ability to recognize and interpret POCUS images. Second- and third-year residents reported educational effectiveness that was rated 3.9 on a 4-point Likert scale. Four third-year residents took part in the optional POCUS elective, and all reported a change in their practice with increased POCUS incorporation.ConclusionsOur longitudinal pediatric residency POCUS curriculum is feasible to integrate into residency training and exhibits early success.
Highlights
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an ideal imaging modality for many reasons including portability, allowing for immediate bedside access, assistance in real time decision making, and procedural accuracy
Given the growing use of POCUS, as well as its benefits to the pediatric population and expansion into pediatric subspecialties, we developed a mandatory, longitudinal POCUS curriculum for all pediatric residents
Our curriculum was designed to offer organized, interdisciplinary POCUS training to pediatric residents throughout all 3 years of their training recognizing the importance of ultrasound as an imaging modality in children
Summary
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an ideal imaging modality for many reasons including portability, allowing for immediate bedside access, assistance in real time decision making, and procedural accuracy. Many medical specialties use ultrasound in some manner, including anesthesia [1], neonatology [2], internal medicine [3,4,5], Despite the obvious benefits including safety improvements and lack of ionizing radiation, most pediatric residency training programs have been slow to adopt POCUS as part of their curriculum. In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed the incorporation of POCUS training into pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowships, as well as POCUS education for PEM physicians [13]. Brant et al BMC Medical Education (2021) 21:64 fellowship training programs have an ultrasound curriculum, a significant increase from 10 years ago [14]. POCUS is a growing field in medical education, and an imaging modality ideal for children given the lack of ionizing radiation, ease of use, and good tolerability. Our objective was to provide a formalized POCUS curriculum over multiple years, and to retrospectively assess improvement in resident skills and comfort
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