A Formalized Three-Year Emergency Medicine Residency Ultrasound Education Curriculum
Correspondence should be addressed to Andrew King, MD at andrew.king3@OSUMC.edu, Twitter: @akingermd
ABSTRACT
Audience and type of curriculum:
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Emergency Medicine Residency Program Ultrasound Education Curriculum is a three-year curriculum for PGY-1 to PGY-3 learners.
Introduction/Background:
Each year of the three-year The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Curriculum focuses on different aspects of emergency ultrasonography, thereby promoting progressive understanding and utilization of point-of-care ultrasound in medical decision-making during residency training. Ultrasound is an invaluable bedside tool for emergency physicians; this skill must be mastered by resident learners during residency training, and ultrasound competency is a required Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestone.1 The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) currently recommends that 11 applications of emergency ultrasound be part of the core skills of an emergency physician.2 This curriculum acknowledges the standards developed by ACEP and the ACGME.
Objectives:
Learners will 1) know the indications for each the 11 ACEP point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) applications; 2) perform each of the 11 ACEP POCUS applications; 3) integrate POCUS into medical decision-making.
Methods:
The educational strategies used in this curriculum include: independent, self-directed learning (textbook and literature reading), brief didactic sessions describing indications and technique for each examination, hands-on ultrasound scanning under the direct supervision of ultrasound faculty with real-time feedback, and quality assurance review of ultrasound images. Residents are expected to perform a minimum of 150 ultrasound examinations with associated quality assurance during the course of their residency training. The time requirements, reading material, and ultrasound techniques taught vary depending on the year of training.
Length of curriculum:
The entirety of the curriculum is three years; however, each year of residency training has specific objectives and education material.
Topics:
Ultrasound, POCUS, medical education, curriculum.
