Teaching Seasoned Doctors New Technology: An Intervention to Reduce Barriers and Improve Comfort With Clinical Ultrasound

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2021-08, Vol.13 (8), p.e17248
• Main Authors: Kennedy, Sarah K, Duncan, Taylor, Herbert, Audrey G, Rood, Loren K, Rutz, Matt A, Zahn, Gregory S, Welch, Julie L, Russell, Frances M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Emergency Medicine; Medical Education
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.17248

Introduction Although clinical ultrasound (CUS) is a core skill that is a requirement for emergency medicine (EM) residency graduation, only a fraction of EM practitioners who trained prior to this requirement are certified in CUS. The objective of the study was to implement a CUS workshop for practicing EM physicians, identify barriers to utilization, and assess comfort with the machine, obtaining and interpreting images, and incorporating CUS into clinical practice. Methods This was a prospective descriptive cohort study of EM physician faculty who participated in an interactive 5-hour CUS workshop intervention that introduced four core CUS modalities via didactics and hands-on scanning stations. Pre- and post-surveys were administered to identify barriers to utilization and assess perceived comfort with CUS using a 5-point Likert scale. Results were analyzed using Fisher's exact and paired t-tests. Results Thirty-five EM physicians participated with a 100% survey response rate. Only five of the physicians were ultrasound certified at the time of the workshop. On average, physicians were 16 years post-residency. Prior to the workshop, 29% had minimal ultrasound experience and 43% had not performed more than 50 ultrasounds. In the pre-course survey, every physician expressed at least one barrier to CUS utilization. Post-workshop, physicians felt significantly more comfortable using the ultrasound machine (p=0.0008), obtaining and interpreting images (p=0.0009 and p=0.0004), and incorporating CUS into clinical practice (p=0.002). Conclusion This workshop is an effective tool to expose practicing physicians to core concepts of CUS, improve their comfort level, and reduce barriers to ultrasound utilization.