"Teaching old dogs new tricks" - POCUS Education for Senior Faculty

Assessment of Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Knowledge Among Lebanese Medical Residents

Over the past few years, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has emerged as a critical diagnostic tool in emergency medicine, providing real-time imaging at the bedside. This study aims to assess POCUS knowledge and competency among medical residents in Lebanon, identify possible gaps and deficiencies in their training, and recommend guidelines for further improvement of the curriculum in Lebanese medical schools and residency programs. Our study reveals that 58.3% (N=119) of resident doctors from multiple specialties in Lebanon have only basic knowledge about POCUS, 19.6% (N=40) have no knowledge, and only 21.6% (N=44) have sufficient knowledge to perform diagnostic studies on a routine basis. Lebanese medical residents currently possess suboptimal POCUS knowledge and proficiency due to disparities in training and educational obstacles. To address this, residency programs should focus on standardized POCUS training, simulation-based learning, and faculty development. This approach will help ensure residents gain the necessary skills to use POCUS effectively in clinical practice.

Impact of Didactic Instruction on the Utilization of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Family Medicine Residents

Background and Objectives In 2014, the Council of Academic Family Medicine released recommendations for the education of family medicine residents in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curricula for Family Medicine Residency programs. One barrier to resident education in POCUS is the lack of access to equipment. This pilot study evaluates whether introducing didactic education on POCUS within a Family Medicine Residency program, with limited access to equipment, correlated with increased utilization of ultrasound by residents. Methods Sixteen family medicine residents participated in the intervention, consisting of a four-hour didactic ultrasound session. Resident confidence in POCUS was evaluated utilizing a Likert scale. Resident utilization of POCUS in a clinical setting was also evaluated by review and analysis of resident procedure logs in the New Innovations database. Results The resident confidence in all skills increased immediately after the completion of the didactic teaching session. Residents demonstrated improved confidence in needle guidance immediately and six weeks after the session (p < 0.001). A review of resident activity two years after the intervention revealed a 9.6% increase in the proportion of resident ultrasounds performed compared to the academic year before the intervention. Conclusions Access to equipment is an ongoing barrier to Family Medicine Residency programs in providing education on POCUS. The results of this study indicate that introducing the basics of POCUS via a didactic teaching session not only increased resident confidence in basic ultrasound but also correlated with increased utilization of POCUS. This increased utilization occurred despite residents not having access to ultrasound in their home clinics.