Investigation of Emergency Nurses in Detecting Foreign Bodies in Soft Tissues With Ultrasonography: A Manikin Study

Foreign bodies in the soft tissue are a critical clinical condition after traumatic injuries. Physical examination is unreliable, and plain radiographs cannot detect radiolucent foreign bodies. In our study, we investigated emergency nurses' foreign body detecting skills on soft tissue with focused ultrasonography.

This study was planned prospectively with 8 emergency nurses. Emergency nurses underwent 3 hours of theoretical and practical training in imaging foreign bodies with ultrasonography. Chicken thighs were used as foreign body manikins. Metal, wood, and glass materials were used as foreign bodies. After the investigations of manikins, emergency nurses stated whether or not foreign bodies were detected.

Eight emergency nurses performed 384 sonographic examinations. Median postgraduate years of emergency nurses were 6.5 years (interquartile range, 4.5; minimum, 3; maximum, 11). This study showed that foreign body detection with ultrasonography had 87.5% (95% CI, 81.5-92.1) sensitivity, 77.4% (95% CI, 70.3-83.5) specificity, 79.5% (95% CI, 74.1-83.7) positive predictive value, 86.1% (95% CI, 80.5-90.3) negative predictive value, and 82.4% (95% CI, 78-86.4) accuracy.

Ultrasonography has good sensitivity and moderate specificity for detecting foreign bodies in the soft tissue by emergency nurses.