Midwest SGIM IPE POCUS at Nebraska

Point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) training is rapidly expanding in undergraduate medical education and internal medicine residency programs, but lack of trained facul-ty is a major barrier at many institutions. To address this problem, a team of educators at the University of Nebraska Medical Center developed an interprofessional educa-tional (IPE) course in which senior diagnostic medical sonography (DMS) students from the College of Allied Health served as near-peer teachers for first-year internal medicine (IM) residents learning to perform abdominal POCUS. Prior to the IPE workshop, DMS students participated in a train-the-trainer session, including case-based simulation of common teaching scenarios. DMS students then coached first-year IM residents to perform POCUS examinations of the kidney, bladder, and gallblad-der. The course utilized a flipped-classroom approach to maximize hands-on scanning time. Residents rotated between 4 scanning stations, each with a different DMS stu-dent-teacher, and practiced image acquisition on live-models. Faculty were available for technical problems, but otherwise did not participate.
Following the workshop, residents completed an objective structured clinical exam evaluating their scanning technique, image quality, and image interpretation. Overall, residents performed well, scoring an average of 91% on the exam. Course evaluations from both residents and DMS students were globally positive. Residents felt an interprofessional approach fostered a posi-tive learning environment that complemented traditional, faculty-led training. DMS students felt their role as educators helped improve their communication, teaching, and clinical skills. The work-shop directors plan to grow the IPE workshop in future years, and hope it can serve as a model for expanding POCUS education at other institutions. For more information, email Christopher Smith at csmithj@unmc.edu.