Theme-based teaching of point-of-care ultrasound in undergraduate medical education

Abstract

A handful of medical schools have developed formal curricula to teach medical students point-of-care ultrasound; however, no ideal method has been proposed. The purpose of this study was to assess an innovative theme-based ultrasound educational model for undergraduate medical education. This was a single-center cross-sectional study conducted at an academic medical center. The study participants were 95 medical students with minimal or no ultrasound experience during their third year of training. The educational theme for the ultrasound session was "The evaluation of patients involved in motor vehicle collisions." This educational theme was carried out during all components of the 1-day event called SonoCamp: asynchronous learning, the didactic lecture, the skills stations, the team case challenge and the individual challenge stations. Assessment consisted of a questionnaire, team case challenge, and individual challenges. A total of 89 of 95 (94 %) students who participated in SonoCamp responded, and 92 % (87 of 95) completed the entire questionnaire before and after the completion of SonoCamp. Ninety-nine percent (95 % CI, 97-100 %) agreed that training at skill stations helped solidify understanding of point-of-care ultrasound. Ninety-two percent (95 % CI, 86-98 %) agreed that theme-based learning is an engaging learning style for point-of-care ultrasound. All students agreed that having a team exercise is an engaging way to learn point-of-care ultrasound; and of the 16 groups, the average score on the case-based questions was 82 % (SD + 28). The 1-day, theme-based ultrasound educational event was an engaging learning technique at our institution which lacks undergraduate medical education ultrasound curriculum.

A Scoping Review of Ultrasound Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education

“…Some [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Fifteen papers describe variously integrated ultrasound curricula. Five studies are notable for the numbers of medical students involved in a formal evaluative process (>150) [5][6][7][8][9].…”

Development of the ultrasonography learning model for undergraduate medical students: A case study of the Faculty of Medicine, Burapha University

“…Almost all of our students agreed that US training should begin in medical school in accordance with other studies. 5,26 Our study had several limitations. As we all know, US competency comprises two parts, which includes image acquisition and image interpretation.…”

Development and Evaluation of a Longitudinal Integrated Ultrasound Curriculum for Third Year Medical Students

“…While some medical schools have achieved this through introduction of ultrasound into early physical examination and anatomy courses [11][12]19 , one-time seminars 14,15 and 4 th year electives 16 , these approaches may not work across all medical school curricula. Previous success had been reported with implementation of a theme-based format when similar short blocks of time were used for educational purposes with point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).…”

“…Previous success had been reported with implementation of a theme-based format when similar short blocks of time were used for educational purposes with point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). 15 Additionally, ultrasound at the graduate medical education (GME) level has shown to be most successful when it has employed a combination of ultrasound faculty directed didactics and hands-on experience. 18 Within a review of emergency medicine resident competencies of POCUS, it was found that programs that had 15 hours of didactic education and a formal ultrasound rotation produced residents with higher test scores on standardized ultrasound testing and improved competancy.…”

“…11,13 Alternatively, short elective courses, seminars and symposia have also shown great success in engaging learners and improving ultrasound knowledge. [14][15][16] Finally, Hoppmann, et al at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine enacted a 4-year ultrasound experience, with exposure to ultrasound throughout both pre-clinical and clinical components of undergraduate medical education at a single campus. 17 Many institutions nationwide that have ultrasound components in UME incorporate ultrasound in the third year of medical school (MS-3), the traditional introduction of clinical rotations.…”