Can J Emerg Med
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A 60-year-old female presents to the emergency department (ED) with a 3-day history of fatigue and mild breathlessness. She has a history of lung cancer. ⋯ Her electrocardiograph (ECG) shows sinus tachycardia. She appears mottled and pale.
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Observational Study
Quality of abdominal ultrasound image acquisition by novice practitioners following a minimal training session on healthy volunteers.
Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) is an essential tool for physicians to guide treatment decisions in both hospital and prehospital settings. Despite the potential patient care and system utilization benefits of prehospital ultrasound, the financial burden of a "hands-on" training program for large numbers of paramedics remains a barrier to implementation. In this study, we conducted a prospective, observational, double-blinded study comparing paramedics to emergency physicians in their ability to generate usable abdominal ultrasound images after a 1-hour didactic training session. ⋯ Paramedics were not able to produce images of interpretable quality at the same frequency when compared with emergency medicine physicians. However, a 61.4% usable image rate for paramedics following a short 1-hour didactic training session is promising for future studies, which could incorporate a short hands-on tutorial while remaining cost-effective.