Development and Assessment of a Novel Task Trainer and Targeting Tasks for Ultrasound-guided Invasive Procedures

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) recommends that all providers performing ultrasound-guided invasive procedures be competent in a core set of guidance skills common to all ultrasound-guided procedures, including in-plane and out-of-plane needle guidance and needle imaging optimization techniques such as probe translation, rotation, and heel-toe standoff. To allow for the practice and assessment of these core skills, we have created a novel task trainer and set of targeting tasks, and sought to obtain validity evidence in the content and response process domains for this training and assessment system according to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing.

We have constructed an ultrasound-guided invasive procedure training system and five targeting tasks that focused on the needle guidance skills outlined by the AIUM. All tasks were performed by obstetrics and gynecology or maternal-fetal medicine physicians with and without experience in ultrasound-guided invasive procedures during a series of simulation workshops. All participants completed a survey regarding the trainer's and the tasks' usefulness in the training of inexperienced physicians.

The physicians who completed the tasks had favorable views of task trainer and curriculum. The targeting curriculum was felt to allow practice of all of the core guidance skills outlined by the AIUM. The average response provided for all of the tasks was 4.0 or greater, with half of the items having an average response of 4.5 or higher.

We have constructed a task trainer that incorporates all of the core skills outlined by the AIUM. All five tasks received very favorable reviews from both experienced and inexperienced providers. Taken together, our findings suggest they have strong content and response process validity evidence.