The long-term effect of short point of care ultrasound course on physicians’ daily practice

Abstract

Background The benefits of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) are well established in the literature. As it is an operator-dependent modality, the operator is required to be skilled in obtaining and interpreting images. Physicians who are not trained in POCUS attend courses to acquire the basics in this field. The effectiveness of such short POCUS courses on daily POCUS utilization is unknown. We sought to measure the change in POCUS utilization after practicing physicians attended short POCUS courses. Methods A 13-statements questionnaire was sent to physicians who attended POCUS courses conducted at the Soroka University Medical Center between the years 2014–2018. Our primary objective was to compare pre-course and post-course POCUS utilization. Secondary objectives included understanding the course graduates’ perceived effect of POCUS on diagnosis, the frequency of ultrasound utilization and time to effective therapy. Results 212 residents and specialists received the questionnaire between 2014–2018; 116 responded (response rate of 54.7%). 72 (62.1%) participants were male, 64 (55.2%) were residents, 49 (42.3%) were specialists, 3 (2.5%) participants did not state their career status. 90 (77.6%) participants declared moderate use or multiple ultrasound use six months to four years from the POCUS course, compared to a rate of ‘no use at all’ and ‘minimal use of 84.9% before the course. 98 participants [84.4% CI 77.8%, 91.0%] agree and strongly agree that a short POCUS course may improve diagnostic skills and 76.7% [CI 69.0%, 84.3%] agree and strongly agree that the POCUS course may shorten time to diagnosis and reduce morbidity. Conclusions Our short POCUS course significantly increases bedside ultrasound utilization by physicians from different fields even 4 years from course completion. Course graduates strongly agreed that incorporating POCUS into their clinical practice improves patient care. Such courses should be offered to residents and senior physicians to close the existing gap in POCUS knowledge among practicing physicians.

“Playing it SAFE in the NICU” SAFE-R: a targeted diagnostic ultrasound protocol for the suddenly decompensating infant in the NICU

“…A main challenge to implementation of POCUS in general is the need for adapted training and effort to achieve competency and skills. However, for the targeted POCUS, studies show that short focused courses improve ranging from a few hours to a few days are sufficient to achieve basic POCUS competency [ 9 , 10 ] and for implementation into daily practice even for novices. Mazmanyan P et al [ 11 ] were able to introduce and implement lung ultrasound into daily practice in a middle-income country after a short lung ultrasound training course.…”

Ultrasound in primary care: Consensus recommendations on its applications and training. Results of a 3-round Delphi study

“…However, ultrasound training should be available not only for residents but also for senior specialists. Training may lead to a change in clinical practice and a more remarkable ability to solve ongoing health problems [ 8 ].…”

Point-of-care ultrasound education needs for nurse practitioners in primary care settings: An integrative review

“…Thirteen of the articles were quantitative studies, of which 11 were observational studies (Boniface et al, 2019;Bornemann, 2017;Dornhofer et al, 2020;Hall et al, 2021;Lindgaard & Riisgaard, 2017;Safavi et al, 2018;Snelling et al, 2021;Wong et al, 2013;Yamada et al, 2018), one was a mixed case-control and expert-opinion Delphi study (Homar et al, 2020), and one was a case-control study (Tuvali et al, 2020).…”

“…There was only one study that included NPs, which was conducted by Snelling et al (2021). Eleven of the primary studies included in this integrative review had a POCUS education or training program as their intervention (Boniface et al, 2019;Bornemann, 2017;Dornhofer et al, 2020;Hall et al, 2021;Lindgaard & Riissgaard, 2017;Safavi et al, 2018;Tuvali et al, 2020;Wong et al, 2013;Yamada et al, 2018). Five articles used pre-and post-test score comparisons to determine curriculum effectiveness (Dornhofer et al, 2020;Hall et al, 2021;Safavi et al, 2018;, two articles compared FPs and NPs with another physician specialty as a marker of POCUS accuracy (Lindgaard & Riisgaard, 2017;Snelling et al, 2021), and one article examined the use of a digital image reviewer in place of a physician to assess the quality of POCUS images (Boniface et al, 2019).…”

“…Among the primary studies and narrative papers included, three articles provided information regarding curricula spanning more than 7 days (Barron et al, 2019;Bornemann, 2017;Hall et al, 2021;Tuvali et al, 2020); this length of time was associated with increased POCUS use (Tuvali et al, 2020), increased test scores (Bornemann, 2017), and more opportunities for professional and academic appointments (Barron et al, 2019). Eight of the primary studies found that POCUS education and training can be achieved in short education and training sessions ranging from two hours to five days (Dornhofer et al, 2020;Lindgaard & Riisgaard, 2017;Safavi et al, 2018;Snelling et al, 2021;Wong et al, 2013;Yamada et al, 2018).…”