Development of a Longitudinal, Small-Group POCUS Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents

Development of a Longitudinal, Small-Group POCUS Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents Introduction Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) is integral for clinicians to enhance their diagnostic and procedural skills. Unlike Emergency Medicine or Anesthesia training programs, Internal Medicine programs often lack a structured and standardized curriculum. We thus developed a longitudinal and multi-pronged POCUS curriculum aimed at building trainee competency when utilizing ultrasound for diagnostic and procedural work-up. Methods The curriculum encompasses the following: basics of ultrasound, ultrasound-guided procedures, thoracic ultrasound/Bed Lung Ultrasound in Emergency (BLUE), and cardiac ultrasound/Focus-Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography (FATE). These modules were integrated into the residents’ clinic blocks. We utilized asynchronous materials, hands-on instruction, and supervised ultrasound examinations. Trainees completed pre- and post- didactic assessments. Utilizing a two-tailed paired t-test, we analyzed performance difference and deemed p < .05 to signify statistical significance. Results Among 38 categorical residents, 70.2% completed pre-assessments and 56.1% completed post assessments. Statistically significant improvements were noted in the following modules: ultrasound theory (+23.5%, p = 0.0011), procedures (+24.8%, p = 0.0036), and cardiac (+51.5%, p = 0.013). Some improvement was noted in thoracic, but this was not statistically significant (+8.2%, p = 0.19). We owe this anomaly to limited resident participation. Conclusion: Our multi-dimensional and longitudinal curriculum design demonstrated increased competency, as evidenced by the results. Trainees appreciated the small-group format that allowed them to learn closely from the faculty. In the future, we aim to evaluate the real-world applications of POCUS and adapt the curriculum to meet learners’ needs.