Independent Assessment of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Training Among Graduating Residents in Two Anesthesiology Residency Programs

Background In the recent past, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has been an integral part of resident education in anesthesiology. Residency programs have varied levels of POCUS curriculum. To assess the effectiveness of POCUS training, we conducted a study on graduating residents of two academic anesthesiology programs. To avoid bias, we used an external examiner to assess the effectiveness of teaching. Methods Graduating anesthesiology residents from the University of Minnesota (12 residents ) and the University of Iowa (24 residents) from 2022 and 2023 were included. Our study collected data on the different aspects of POCUS training: knowledge, ability to acquire and interpret images, and management of patients based on POCUS imaging in four different stations. The stations included multiple-choice questions (MCQs), image interpretation and patient management, image acquisition, and post-test surveys. Results There was no statistically significant difference in the knowledge, image interpretation, and post-test surveys between the two programs. Residents from the University of Minnesota performed slightly better in some areas than their University of Iowa counterparts in acquiring images in subcostal, parasternal short, parasternal long, and pneumothorax assessments. Conclusions Differences in teaching curriculum and model body habitus may account for the observed differences between the two groups. A structured POCUS curriculum with an unbiased means of assessing the effectiveness of teaching can be valuable in improving teaching methods and providing feedback to the learners. A study with additional cohorts, more sites, or a larger number of participants may have greater statistical power to detect potential differences between sites or cohorts.