Point-of-care ultrasound training content and evaluation of competency

Although in US is being used for a long time, in our emergency departments, point of care ultrasound usage is being newly shaped in Emergency Medicine Curriculum. The main outcome of our study was to determine the quantitative and qualitative context of the care-focused ultrasound education practices and to determine the sufficiency of these practices. The questionnaire that was prepared for this purpose has two parts. In the first part there were questions regarding the demographic data, the quality of the residency training programs' US hardware, and the context of the didactic and practical education practices. The latter part consisted of questions regarding the point of care ultrasound sufficiency of the practitioners'. The Likert-type questions in the second part were constructed for self-evaluation in accordance to Likert scale. The questionnaire was forwarded to all the Emergency Medicine residency programs in Turkey via a web link. In our study including 249 participants, the yearly mean hour of practical training was 12,5 hours excluding the in-hospital point-of-care practices. The mean of yearly didactical education was 121,1 hours. The most common method of training was "self-directed learning by practice". The most used assessment and evaluation method was "multiple choice or standard written exams". The most frequently used diagnostic and procedural areas were cardiac, trauma, aorta, biliary US and guidance for thoracentesis. When all the US practices were taken into account only 10.1% were very during supervision of an attending. We found that point care-of-ultrasound training in Turkey is insufficient of didactic and practical hours devoted to training, number of supervised exam and assessment methods and techniques used in training. Further study is required for standard educational content and adequate didactic and practical learning.