A Quality Improvement Approach to Modification of a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Curriculum

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Quality Improvement Science
• Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Background:

• Resident engagement in quality improvement (QI) is crucial but often low.
• QI principles can be effectively applied to medical education curriculum design and implementation.
• Traditional QI focuses on clinical processes, overlooking educational applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the utility of QI methods in designing and implementing a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum.
• To establish a quality assurance program for a POCUS portfolio within an internal medicine residency.
• To improve resident engagement in QI by applying it to curriculum development.

Main Methods:

• Utilized foundational QI methods: process mapping, plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles, time-trap identification, and run-chart analysis.
• Incorporated qualitative interviews to assess curricular design and implementation phases.
• Applied methodologies iteratively to identify and address areas for improvement.

Main Results:

• Fifty-one interns submitted 731 images; 29% were misarchived.
• Resident-reviewer concordance was 80.7%; a 95.2% redundancy was found in quality assurance feedback.
• Interventions led to a reduction in feedback time from 69.5 to 6.5 days.

Conclusions:

• QI methods were successfully applied to a novel POCUS curriculum, demonstrating expeditious curricular improvement.
• Systematic application of QI methodologies facilitates rapid curriculum enhancement.
• Highlighting QI's relevance beyond clinical processes may increase resident participation in QI efforts.