Can Medical Students Learn and Perform POCUS in the Pediatric Emergency Department? Implementation of a Short Curriculum

Purpose: To determine medical student ability to accurately obtain and interpret POCUS exams of varying difficulty in the pediatric population after a short didactic and hands-on POCUS course. Methods: Five medical students were trained in four POCUS applications (bladder volume, long bone for fracture, limited cardiac for left ventricular function, 95% CI 87.3-99.0%) and agreed with 50/53 bladder volume calculations (94.3%; 95% CI 88.1-100%). Ultrasound-fellowship-trained emergency medicine physicians graded 35/37 long bone scans as acceptable (94.6%; 95% CI 82.3-98.5%) and agreed with 32/37 medical student long bone scan interpretations (86.5%; 95% CI 72.0-94.1%). Ultrasound-fellowship-trained emergency medicine physicians graded 116/120 cardiac scans as acceptable (96.7%; 95% CI 91.7-98.7%) and agreed with 111/120 medical student left ventricular function interpretations (92.5%; 95% CI 86.4-96.0%). Ultrasound-fellowship-trained emergency medicine physicians graded 99/117 inferior vena cava scans as acceptable (84.6%; 95% CI 77.0-90.0%) and agreed with 101/117 medical student interpretations of inferior vena cava collapsibility (86.3%; 95% CI 78.9-91.4%). Conclusions: Medical students demonstrated satisfactory ability within a short period of time in a range of POCUS scans on pediatric patients after a novel curriculum. This supports the incorporation of a formal POCUS education into medical school curricula and suggests that novice POCUS learners can attain a measure of competency in multiple applications after a short training course.