Canadian Recommendations for Critical Care Ultrasound Training and Competency

Abstract

Consensus was achieved to direct training curriculum, oversight, quality assurance and maintenance of competence for critical care ultrasound. In providing the first national guideline of its kind, these Canadian recommendations may also serve as a model of critical care ultrasound dissemination for other countries.

The utility of remote supervision with feedback as a method to deliver high-volume critical care ultrasound training

“…The lack of any formal evaluation of the quality of the feedback from the learner's perspective is clearly a limitation in our feedback intensive experience and deserves further study. In a similar fashion, the curriculum director performing competency assessments, though in keeping with recently published Canadian CCUS training guidelines [5], is an inherently biased assessment of one's own teaching efforts. Opportunity for an unbiased assessment would require an additional local or external expert more detached from the curriculum.…”

“…Competency assessment was carried out in keeping with recently published Canadian CCUS training guidelines [5]. This consists of a combination of directly observed studies of consistently acceptable quality, accurate image acquisition, and interpretation across studies reviewed as part of the trainee portfolio.…”

Premier niveau de compétence pour l’échographie clinique en médecine d’urgence. Recommandations de la Société française de médecine d’urgence par consensus formalisé

“…Il n'y a pas de preuve dans la littérature scientifique, mais il est apparu aux cotateurs qu'un médecin référent, possédant une compétence en échographie plus approfondie telle que le module EAU du DIUETUS, favoriserait le processus d'apprentissage et d'appropriation de la technique au sein d'une équipe d'urgentistes, en particulier pour l'analyse a posteriori des échographies focales [68] (Annexe A : Aspects juridiques).…”

“…Le carnet de stage permet le suivi de l'apprentissage [68]. Il est difficile de déterminer le volume horaire ou le nombre d'examens nécessaires pour acquérir le premier niveau de l'ECMU.…”

Critical Care Ultrasonography: essential skill for a bedside physician.

“…Critical Care Societies should support the implementation of training in CCUS in its own country 3 and should work to achieve national consensus on standards of training, quality assurance and maintenance of competence in CCUS for intensivists and critical care trainees. 4 CCUS can function as a valuable adjunct to physical examination for evaluation of critically ill patient with undifferentiated shock, which can be one of the most challenging issues in daily practice. 5 In ICU patients, bedside lung ultrasound has a considerably better diagnostic performance than chest X-ray for the diagnosis of common pathological conditions and may serve as an alternative to thoracic CT. 7 Ultrasonography of optic nerve sheath diameter has a good diagnositc accuracy for detecting intracranial hypertension.…”