SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Hospitalists and Apps: A Pilot Project

Pdf Summary

This pilot project evaluated a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum for hospital medicine attendings and advanced practice providers (APPs) at Penn Medicine. The goal was to determine whether a blended learning approach—five in-person sessions with lectures and hands-on practice, plus online homework and encouraged clinical scanning—would improve participants’ familiarity, confidence, and use of POCUS.<br /><br />Ten clinicians were enrolled, including 4 attendings and 6 APPs. Before training, most participants had some prior ultrasound exposure, but only 10% had participated in a structured curriculum. Interest in learning POCUS was high, especially for volume assessment, focused cardiac ultrasound, and lung ultrasound. During the course, participants completed pre-session surveys, uploaded scans to a HIPAA-compliant cloud, and received review from ultrasound-trained clinicians.<br /><br />Results showed that overall confidence with POCUS increased by about 75% from the beginning to the end of the curriculum. Confidence improved in both image acquisition and interpretation for most exam types, including jugular venous pressure (JVP) and lung ultrasound. However, confidence in cardiac image interpretation decreased slightly, possibly reflecting greater appreciation of the complexity of cardiac ultrasound or limited sample size.<br /><br />Despite improved confidence, participants still reported limited real-world scanning opportunities, often performing scans less than once per week. The most common barriers were time constraints and lack of access to an ultrasound probe.<br /><br />The authors concluded that hospitalists and APPs were highly motivated to learn POCUS and that a focused blended curriculum can improve confidence. However, more work is needed to improve scan retention, access, and routine clinical use.

Asset Subtitle

Maura Williams

Meta Tag

Author List Anne Mao, Christy Moore, Jennifer Myers, John Barrett, Maura Williams, Robert E. Burke

Category Innovations

Concept Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Concept Hospitalized Patients

Concept Hands-On Scanning

Concept Learner Confidence

Concept Image Acquisition

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Presenting Author Maura Williams

Track Technology in Hospital Medicine

Keywords

point-of-care ultrasound

POCUS curriculum

hospital medicine

advanced practice providers

blended learning

ultrasound training

clinical confidence

image acquisition

lung ultrasound

cardiac ultrasound

Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Hospitalized Patients

Hands-On Scanning

Learner Confidence

Image Acquisition