Development of a multisystem point of care ultrasound skills assessment checklist

Abstract

Background Many institutions are training clinicians in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), but few POCUS skills checklists have been developed and validated. We developed a consensus-based multispecialty POCUS skills checklist with anchoring references for basic cardiac, lung, abdominal, and vascular ultrasound, and peripheral intravenous line (PIV) insertion. Methods A POCUS expert panel of 14 physicians specializing in emergency, critical care, and internal/hospital medicine participated in a modified-Delphi approach to develop a basic POCUS skills checklist by group consensus. Three rounds of voting were conducted, and consensus was defined by ≥ 80% agreement. Items achieving < 80% consensus were discussed and considered for up to two additional rounds of voting. Results Thirteen POCUS experts (93%) completed all three rounds of voting. Cardiac, lung, abdominal, and vascular ultrasound checklists included probe location and control, basic machine setup, image quality and optimization, and identification of anatomical structures. PIV insertion included additional items for needle tip tracking. During the first round of voting, 136 (82%) items achieved consensus, and after revision and revoting, an additional 21 items achieved consensus. A total of 153 (92%) items were included in the final checklist. Conclusions We have developed a consensus-based, multispecialty POCUS checklist to evaluate skills in image acquisition and anatomy identification for basic cardiac, lung, abdominal, and vascular ultrasound, and PIV insertion.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Introduction of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in an Urban Academic Primary Care Center

“…Multidisciplinary teams are gathering to identify POCUS skills that should be prioritized in curricula. One notable contribution was the POCUS skills checklist assembled in 2022 by a team of EM, critical care, and hospital medicine providers [ 14 ]. Consensus voting was used to assemble the selected multisystem POCUS applications for heart, lung, abdomen, and procedural guidance.…”

“…More specifically, they recommend four weeks of focused work on technique during the first year of residency and then an advanced course for senior residents later on [12]. There is no universally standardized list of topics and skills that all POCUS learners should master for a given specialty, although some preliminary content recommendations do exist [2,[13][14][15][16]. In addition to a lack of training guidelines, barriers to implementing POCUS in a primary care setting include a lack of instructors, equipment, and practitioner confidence in independently interpreting images [17].…”

An in-Depth Examination of the Characteristics of Pre-Hospital Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training Among Emergency Medicine Residents in Laos as Part of an Overseas Elective Rotation

“…12,18,19 There are different ways to assess POCUS skills. [21][22][23][24] However, our application solely employed multiple-choice questions. This is due to the time constraints and the many responsibilities associated with this course.…”