title: Student tutors for hands-on training in focused emergency echocardiography--a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Focused emergency echocardiography performed by non-cardiologists has been shown to be feasible and effective in emergency situations. During resuscitation a short focused emergency echocardiography has been shown to narrow down potential differential diagnoses and to improve patient survival. Quite a large proportion of physicians are eligible to learn focused emergency echocardiography. Training in focused emergency echocardiography usually comprises a lecture, hands-on trainings in very small groups, and a practice phase. There is a shortage of experienced echocardiographers who can supervise the second step, the hands-on training. We thus investigated whether student tutors can perform the hands-on training for focused emergency echocardiography.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30 volunteer 4th and 5th year students were randomly assigned to a twelve-hour basic echocardiography course comprising a lecture followed by a hands-on training in small groups taught either by an expert cardiographer (EC) or by a student tutor (ST). Using a pre-post-design, the students were evaluated by an OSCE. The students had to generate two still frames with the apical five-chamber view and the parasternal long axis in five minutes and to correctly mark twelve anatomical cardiac structures. Two blinded expert cardiographers rated the students' performance using a standardized checklist. Students could achieve a maximum of 25 points.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both groups showed significant improvement after the training (p < .0001). In the group taught by EC the average increased from 2.3±3.4 to 17.1±3.0 points, and in the group taught by ST from 2.7±3.0 to 13.9±2.7 points. The difference in improvement between the groups was also significant (p = .03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hands-on training by student tutors led to a significant gain in echocardiography skills, although inferior to teaching by an expert cardiographer.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Tübingen, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller-Str. 10, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kühl
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bauder
authors.forename: Yelena
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fenik
authors.forename: Reimer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Riessen
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lammerding-Köppel
authors.forename: Meinrad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gawaz
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fateh-Moghadam
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weyrich
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Celebi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004452:Echocardiography; D004501:Education, Medical; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors / Q000193:education; D010379:Peer Group; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013337:Students, Medical; D055815:Young Adult