B38-10 Addressing Training Discrepancies and Establishing Standardized Educational Curricula for Internal Medicine Residents for Their ICU Rotation and Inpatient Rotations

Abstract Rationale Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a vital tool enhancing real-time clinical decision-making and improving diagnostic efficiency. Despite POCUS increasingly being regarded as a core competency, the use of POCUS remains inconsistent due to variable exposure, limited practice, and limited standardized training. Despite substantial training time spent in the ICU and inpatient rotations, where timely image acquisition can directly impact patient care, literature is lacking in a scalable POCUS curriculum for large cohorts of Internal Medicine (IM) residents. This project sought to address these gaps by curating a reproducible curriculum with standardized patients to improve residents’ confidence in image acquisition, interpretation, and clinical application. Methods This prospective interventional study involved approximately 50 interns from LAGMC+USC’s IM and Medicine-Pediatrics programs. Four sessions were integrated into the academic schedule. Each session consisted of a 20-minute lecture and 40 minutes of supervised, hands-on scanning in small groups (4-6 residents per machine). Core topics included ultrasound fundamentals, pulmonary and cardiac assessment, and the extended Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (eFAST) exam. Standardized patients were used to ensure teaching consistency, feedback, and reinforce bedside manners. Residents completed anonymous pre- and post-intervention surveys utilizing Likert scales assessing their confidence, competence, and frequency of ultrasound use. Model estimates were reported as odds ratios (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals and p-values. False discovery rate (FDR) using the Simes method was employed to adjust for multiple-testing and statistical significance was set at 0.05. Results 61 residents completed the pre-survey and 25 completed the post-survey (40% retention). Following the intervention, residents were 2.96 times more likely to report higher confidence in ultrasound proficiency (95% CI = 1.26-6.93, p = 0.02). Confidence improved across multiple domains, including ICU and rapid response use, knobology, probe selection, artifact recognition, image optimization, and interpretation of IVC, cardiac, pulmonary, and eFAST exams (p 0.05). Longitudinal impacts included increase in clinical use for cardiac and lung assessments (p 0.05). Although use for volume status, abdominal fluid, and procedural guidance was not statistically significant, overall satisfaction with ultrasound education increased markedly, OR 17.24 (CI = 5.75 - 51.71, p 0.001). Conclusion The structured POCUS curriculum using standardized patients significantly improved residents’ confidence, proficiency, and frequency of use. While post-survey attrition limits interpretation of some outcomes, this model demonstrates that a reproducible ultrasound curriculum can be successfully integrated into large IM residencies and may be generalizable to other institutions. This abstract is funded by: CIR Grant