Ubaldo Madera Sanchez, MD
Internal Medicine Resident
Hosp Universitario Dr R Arnau
Disclosure information not submitted.
Keila Díaz Rodriguez
M.D.
Hospital Universitario Ramon Ruiz Arnau, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Janice Cuevas Rivera
M.D.
Hospital Universitario Ramon Ruiz Arnau, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Javier Ortega Belasquide, n/a
M.D.
Hospital Universitario Ramon Ruiz Arnau
Bayamon, Puerto Rico, United States
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Maria Cochran Perez
M.D.
Hospital Universitario Ramon Ruiz Arnau, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Juan Ruiz Ramos
M.D.
Hospital Universitario Ramon Ruiz Arnau, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Title: Designing a point-of-care ultrasound curriculum for our training as internal medicine residents
Introduction: At the beginning of our journey, we did not know where to start learning Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). Then we asked ourselves what will be the skills we wanted to learn and master as a resident. POCUS has been called "the new stethoscope" as it has become more relevant in speeding the decision-making capabilities of doctors with accuracy without providing harm to the patients. It is precise to adequate the skills to the internal medicine trainees with the tools and skills to deliver better care to the patients, thus proper medical treatment using a non-invasive approach, the POCUS.
Methods: We developed a POCUS curriculum that meets the competence standards for the Critical Care ultrasound certification supported by medical associations such as the American College of Chest Physicians, Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Society of Hospital Medicine. At the end of the residency training, the resident would have completed 75 hours of POCUS training and the creation of a personal portfolio of 102 images. To help with this goal, we have created an instructional website (wwww.hurrapocus.com) where residents can learn by reading and uploading their POCUS images. We started the implementation process gradually with the PGY-1 residents first.
Results: In a survey applied, 100% of the internal medicine residents at our hospital were highly interested in learning POCUS during residency, and 100% find it a must-have skill to manage critically ill patients. By the end of the residence year, the confidence level in identifying lung abnormalities increased 30% for B-lines recognition and 50% for pleural effusion. The other subjects that we saw an improvement in the confidence level were cardiac Pocus and Inferior vena cava evaluation.
Conclusion: With the advent of newly handheld ultrasound machines with new algorithms, it is becoming more accessible to the internal medicine trainees that it is imperative to develop such skills and adequate residency training to provide a POCUS curriculum. At our residency program, we took the first step, and we hope that our curriculum could serve as a model for other residency training programs in the future.