Content and Adequacy of Emergency Medicine Point of Care Ultrasound Training: Evaluation of Turkey

Abstract

Aim: With its widespread use for emergency patient care, point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) is included in postgraduate education in Turkey, but its practice may vary depending on the training program. Our study aimed to determine the content of practices regarding PoCUS training in Turkey, and to present a future perspective by revealing the relationship between years of education and competence perceptions. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive study conducted on emergency medicine students who were still residents approximately 2018-2019. The first part includes demographic data, theoretical and practical training content. The second part is created according to the Likert scale for self-assessment that questions the competence. The survey was conveyed to. Results: In our study, including 249 residents, the participants reported their practical training hours for emergency ultrasound (US) use as 12.5 h, and theoretical training hours as 12.1 h. For all sonographic evaluations, it was found that 10.1% of the practices were performed under the supervision of an academic member. Conclusion: It was found that Emergency Medicine clinics in Turkey had adequate equipment for the use and training of US, residents had a certain level of competence to using US, but there was no regular training with curriculum and assessment criteria in clinics.