Abstract
Background: Focused cardiac ultrasound (FCU) is a safe and efficient diagnostic intervention for internal medicine physicians. FCU is a highly teachable skill, but is used in routine cardiac assessment in only 20% of surveyed training programs.We developed an FCU curriculum for internal medicine residents and an assessment tool to evaluate the impact of the curriculum on trainee knowledge and confidence. Methods: Internal medicine residents rotating through clinical cardiology services underwent 30 minutes of didactic and 60 minutes of hands-on teaching on acquisition and interpretation of FCU. A 20 item pre and post-curriculum online survey was administered (November 2018-December 2019) to assess confidence and knowledge in FCU. Results: 79 of 116 (68%) residents completed the pre-survey and 50 completed the post-survey, of whom 34 received the curriculum. The mean change in confidence score in those who received versus did not receive the curriculum was 0.99 versus 0.39 (p=0.046) on a 5-point Likert scale. Among 33 residents who had paired pre- and post-surveys the mean change in confidence score was 1.2 versus 0.85 (p<0.001) in those who received versus did not receive the curriculum. The mean increase in knowledge score was 13% versus 7% respectively (p<0.0001). Conclusions: We instituted a novel curriculum for internal medicine residents to gain experience in image acquisition and interpretation. Both confidence and knowledge in FCU improved following the curriculum, indicating that this is a highly teachable skill. Additional analysis of the of the FCU study images will be useful for informing future interventions.
Highlights
Focused cardiac ultrasound (FCU) is a safe and efficient diagnostic intervention for internal medicine physicians
Though several informal curriculums exist, there is sparse data demonstrating the quantitative impact of such curriculums on medical residents. [14,15] We developed an FCU curriculum for internal medicine residents and an assessment tool to evaluate resident knowledge of FCU as well as confidence in image acquisition and interpretation
The residents were evenly distributed among PGY level. 58% (46/79) had never received any form of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum prior to the study (Table 1)
Summary
Focused cardiac ultrasound (FCU) is a safe and efficient diagnostic intervention for internal medicine physicians. We developed an FCU curriculum for internal medicine residents and an assessment tool to evaluate the impact of the curriculum on trainee knowledge and confidence. Among 33 residents who had paired pre- and post-surveys the mean change in confidence score was 1.2 versus 0.85 (p
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