A bedside ultrasound curriculum for medical students: prospective evaluation of skill acquisition.
OBJECTIVE
We conducted a study to evaluate the efficacy of an introductory ultrasound (US) curriculum for medical students rotating through our emergency department.


METHODS
Third- and 4th-year medical students indicated their previous US experience and were given a pretest consisting of static US images to assess baseline interpretation skills. They participated in a 45-min interactive didactic session followed by a 45-min session of hands-on experience practicing real-time US image acquisition on a normal model. After this session, we tested the timing and quality of their image acquisition skills on a separate normal model. Quality of images was based on a point value from 0 to 2 per image. This was followed by a posttest of static US images, which was graded in the same manner as the pretest.


RESULTS
Thirty-one students participated in the study. Median time to acquire 2 images was 112.5 sec (range = 15420 sec). Acquisition time was unaffected by previous experience (p = .97). The mean score on the quality of 2 images (maximum score = 4) was 3.84; median was 4 (range = 14). Image quality was significantly better in participants with previous US experience (p = .014). Scores on interpretation of static images improved significantly from pretest to posttest by a median of 8.25 points (p = .0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our introductory US course is effective at significantly improving medical students' interpretation of static US images. The majority of students were able to acquire high quality images in a short period of time after this session.
Fernández-Frackelton
Madonna
M
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, California 90509, USA.
Peterson
Michael
M
Lewis
Roger J
RJ
Pérez
Javier E
JE
Coates
Wendy C
WC
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013337:Students, Medical; D014463:Ultrasonography