Team-Based Learning & Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) to Augment a Preclinical Cardiovascular Physiology Course

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)
• Cardiovascular Anatomy and Physiology

Background:

• Increasing interest in POCUS as a preclinical learning tool.
• Limited use of team-based learning (TBL) for cardiac POCUS instruction.
• Need for integrated approaches to teach cardiac anatomy, physiology, and POCUS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate a novel TBL exercise (TBL-US) for integrating cardiac anatomy, physiology, and POCUS education.
• To assess the impact of TBL-US on knowledge acquisition and student attitudes.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of TBL-US in a first-year cardiovascular course.

Main Methods:

• A four-phase TBL-US exercise was implemented.
• Pre- and post-session knowledge assessments and surveys were administered.
• Final exam scores of participants and non-participants were compared, stratified by performance.

Main Results:

• Significant improvement in knowledge assessment scores post-TBL-US (70.5% vs. 54.9%, p<0.001).
• Participants scored significantly higher on the final cardiovascular exam than non-participants (p=0.038).
• 43.3-72.7% of students reported increased understanding of cardiovascular concepts and POCUS.

Conclusions:

• TBL-US is a valuable modality for teaching cardiac anatomy, physiology, and POCUS.
• The TBL-US exercise effectively augmented preclinical medical student learning.
• This integrated approach shows promise for enhancing cardiovascular education.