Using tele‐ultrasound to teach medical students: A randomised control equivalence study

Abstract

Objectives Undergraduate ultrasound education is becoming increasingly important, but its expansion is limited by time, space and the availability of trained faculty. In order to validate an alternative and more accessible teaching model, our aim was to assess whether combining teleguidance and peer‐assisted learning to teach ultrasound is as effective as traditional in‐person methods. Methods Peer instructors taught 47 second‐year medical students ocular ultrasound via either teleguidance or traditional in‐person methods. Proficiency was assessed using a multiple‐choice knowledge test and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Confidence, overall experience, and experience with a peer instructor were measured using a 5‐point Likert scale. Two one‐sided t‐tests were used to measure equivalency between the two groups. The null hypothesis that the two groups were not different was rejected when P < 0.05. Results The teleguidance group performed as well as the traditional in‐person group in terms of knowledge change, confidence change, OSCE time and OSCE score (p = 0.011, p = 0.006, p = 0.005 and = 0.004, respectively, indicating the two groups are statistically equivalent). The teleguidance group rated the experience highly overall (4.06/5), but less than the traditional group (4.47/5; P = 0.448, indicating statistical difference). Peer instruction was rated 4.35/5 overall. Conclusion Peer‐instructed teleguidance was equivalent to in‐person instruction with respect to knowledge change, confidence gain and OSCE performance in basic ocular ultrasound.

Building Consensus on the Point-of-Care Ultrasound Skills Required for Effective Healthcare Service Delivery at District Hospitals in South Africa: A Delphi Study

“…As shown in Table 2, only half of the participants received some accredited training, such as a postgraduate diploma and Foundation for Professional Development and EMSSA POCUS courses. The remaining half received noncredentialled POCUS or informal training, which should not come as a surprise, given that skill transfer is a common practice at the district hospital level and peer-to-peer POCUS education is practiced not only in South Africa, but across the world [48,49]. There was also lack of clarity on whether the institutions where the participants were based had access to sonographers, or if the participants were active POCUS trainers.…”

POCUS is everywhere

“…Expanding training opportunities to meet the demand from a growing pool of interested novice POCUS users is an ongoing challenge. Zhao et al 3 . present a study where they employed both telemedicine and peer‐assisted learning.…”