Clinical Ultrasound Training in Emergency Medicine Advanced Practice Provider Residencies

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Medical Education
• Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Background:

• Clinical ultrasound is a core skill for Emergency Medicine (EM) clinicians.
• Understanding current ultrasound training for Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) in residencies is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate current clinical ultrasound training patterns within EM APP residencies.
• To identify common structures, faculty involvement, and evaluation methods.

Main Methods:

• A survey was electronically distributed to 17 active EM APP residencies.
• Data were collected from 21 responses regarding ultrasound faculty, quality assessment, feedback, and competency evaluation.

Main Results:

• A high response rate of 88% was achieved.
• 93% of programs were associated with EM physician residencies, often led by fellowship-trained physicians.
• While 93% required proctored scanning, 60% lacked a required number of scans for graduation.

Conclusions:

• EM APP residencies frequently share ultrasound training infrastructure with EM physician residencies.
• Quality ultrasound training is feasible, but a lack of standardized proficiency guidelines across programs exists.