Retention of Ultrasound Skills and Training in “Point-of-Care” Cardiac Ultrasound

Technically Adequate Images for Preparticipation Screening Echocardiography Can Be Obtained by Novices After a Single Day of Training

“…This study did not assess the degree of skill retention among participants. It is known that echocardiographic skills degrade when not used . Therefore, training, selection of competent individuals, and performance of preparticipation screening should occur within a short time to avoid this effect.…”

“…Several previous studies examined the ability of novices to perform echocardiography after limited training and their ability to interpret basic pathologic findings, [9][10][11][12][13] whereas other studies specifically examined the technical quality of images produced by novices. [14][15][16][17][18] Most studies examined training in echocardiography within the hospital setting, but little has been done on the training requirements for echocardiography used out of hospitals as a screening tool for athletes.…”

“…The efficacy of a structured assessment of image quality in echocardiography has been highlighted in other studies evaluating the adequacy of images for conventional cardiology 22,23 as well as point of care emergency echocardiography. [16][17][18] Nair et al 22 compared the scores obtained by cardiology fellows in their in-training evaluation report, a nonstructured subjective assessment of scanning and interpretive skills, to the performance of the fellows in an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). The OSCE was scored on the basis of a procedural checklist, which factored the technical aspects of the image and the measurements obtained.…”

POCUS in perioperative medicine: a North American perspective

“…From this perspective, POCUS would not be regarded as a separate technical skill but would instead be integrated into daily clinical practice. This development would require a number of steps, including defining the scope of practice for perioperative POCUS and designing a longitudinal curriculum that accounts for current evidence regarding training duration and structure [4, 43], simulator use, number of scans necessary to achieve proficiency, [9, 44–46] assessments of competence [47] and skill retention [48, 49]. National or international expert consensus may be required in areas for which no supporting evidence is available.…”

Hocus POCUS: Making Barriers to Perioperative Point-of-Care Ultrasound Disappear

“…We have data on ultrasound training from other specialties that skills diminish rapidly without reinforcement and continued use. 8 An alternative and more integrated approach can be seen in certain other studies, for example, one by Ramsingh et al that examined the effects of the focused perioperative risk evaluation sonography involving gastro-abdominal, hemodynamic, and transthoracic ultrasound curriculum administered to anesthesia trainees over the course of 2 years. The authors demonstrated an improvement in all of the ultrasound areas that were assessed (including vascular access, pulmonary, and cardiac pathology) as the course progressed, and for cardiac anatomy there was continued improvement between the first and second years of the course.…”