(208) Assessment of POCUS Curriculum for Anesthesia Residents During ICU Rotation

Introduction: Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) is an essential part of patient care, and formal POCUS education is becoming more common in residency. Our goal was to assess the efficacy of the POCUS curriculum in the Cardiothoracic ICU for anesthesia residents.

Methods: Our ICU POCUS curriculum consisted of 6 lectures over 2 months covering the following topics: Left Ventricular Function, Right Ventricular Function, Volume Assessment, US in Acute Coronary Syndrome, Gross Valvular Abnormalities, and Ultrasound in Shock. In addition to lectures, residents participated in 6 hands-on ultrasound sessions with US-trained faculty and a cardiac sonographer. The participants were residents in their 1st, 2nd and 3rd clinical anesthesia year. Participants were asked to fill out a pre-course and post-course survey.

Results: 21 residents completed the pre-course survey and 17 completed the post-course survey. The questions were graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “not comfortable” and 5 being “extremely comfortable”. Residents felt more comfortable obtaining (2.76 vs 3.76) and interpreting (2.48 vs 3.5) basic echo views after completing the curriculum. Residents felt that the lectures and scanning sessions had similar utility (3.75 vs 3.69). Data was collected on the estimated number of scans performed as well as the number of lectures and ultrasound sessions attended. The residents also completed a pre and post test. Pre-course, residents had an average of 59% on the quiz and post-course performed significantly better (average of 73% correct answers). We noted that residents were only able to attend half the lectures (average=3) and two thirds of the hands-on ultrasound sessions (average=2.25).

Conclusions: Residents were more comfortable obtaining and interpreting echo views after participating in the POCUS curriculum during their ICU rotation. This was supported by their improved ability to accurately interpret POCUS clips presented in the test. Given residents were only able to attend half of the lectures due to clinical duties, a recorded on-demand option may be beneficial to improve lecture participation. Future projects should focus on comparing the efficacy of the different components of the POCUS curriculum to optimize resident learning.