The Echo Report Understood: Improving Education in Echocardiography for Junior Doctors

With echocardiography standing as the most widely used cardiac imaging modality, echocardiography report interpretation is a core responsibility of junior doctors. The literature, however, reveals a deficit in echocardiography education. The implications of this for patient care should not be ignore...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2024-07, Vol.16 (7), p.e65630
Main Authors: Nichols, Molly M, Draper, Jane, Webb, Jessica
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cardiology
Confidence
Education
Ejection fraction
Emergencies
Heart failure
Hypertension
Internships
Likert scale
Medical diagnosis
Medical Education
Medical students
Polls & surveys
Pulmonary arteries
Quality Improvement
Skills
Terminology
Velocity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:With echocardiography standing as the most widely used cardiac imaging modality, echocardiography report interpretation is a core responsibility of junior doctors. The literature, however, reveals a deficit in echocardiography education. The implications of this for patient care should not be ignored. To address this need, a hybrid teaching session was developed for junior (intern and resident grade) doctors, with the aim to increase understanding of echocardiography and increase confidence in report interpretation. Pre- and post-session data were analysed. Results revealed that the vast majority of respondents received less than an hour of echocardiography teaching at medical school, with over two-thirds receiving less than an hour in the postgraduate setting. A total of 80% of doctors interpreted echocardiography reports weekly, with almost all doctors perceiving this skill as important. Despite this, an overwhelming majority of doctors did not feel confident interpreting reports. The educational intervention achieved significant increases in perceived understanding of echocardiography and confidence with report interpretation. Participants were better able to identify cardiac pathology and understand report terminology. This intervention has the scope to improve patient safety through better management of cardiac patients and recognition of pathology from echocardiography. This work also identifies a need for more echocardiography education, having uncovered a concerning lack of confidence amongst junior doctors and an appetite for further teaching on this important topic.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.65630