A bedside ultrasound curriculum for medical students: prospective evaluation of skill acquisition

We conducted a study to evaluate the efficacy of an introductory ultrasound (US) curriculum for medical students rotating through our emergency department.

Third- and 4th-year medical students indicated their previous US experience and were given a pretest consisting of static US images to assess baseline interpretation skills. They participated in a 45-min interactive didactic session followed by a 45-min session of hands-on experience practicing real-time US image acquisition on a normal model. After this session, we tested the timing and quality of their image acquisition skills on a separate normal model. Quality of images was based on a point value from 0 to 2 per image. This was followed by a posttest of static US images, which was graded in the same manner as the pretest.

Thirty-one students participated in the study. Median time to acquire 2 images was 112.5 sec (range = 15420 sec). Acquisition time was unaffected by previous experience (p = .97). The mean score on the quality of 2 images (maximum score = 4) was 3.84; median was 4 (range = 14). Image quality was significantly better in participants with previous US experience (p = .014). Scores on interpretation of static images improved significantly from pretest to posttest by a median of 8.25 points (p = .0001).

Our introductory US course is effective at significantly improving medical students' interpretation of static US images. The majority of students were able to acquire high quality images in a short period of time after this session.