Standards, Strategies, and Innovations in Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound Education: A Scoping Review

Cardiac point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) is an invaluable diagnostic tool and is increasingly integrated into undergraduate and graduate medical education curricula. The purpose of this scoping review is to assess the literature, identify educational gaps, potential remedies, and innovative teaching approaches for cardiac POCUS education. A scoping review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The literature search in PubMed, Cochrane, Education Resources Information Center, Embase, and Web of Science yielded 280 articles, of which 74 were included. Themes were identified, and education theory was applied to identify opportunities to improve cardiac POCUS education. Four primary themes were identified: challenges to POCUS education, application of technologies, innovative teaching methods, and assessment models. Themes were analyzed through the lens of cognitive load theory, and solutions were proposed to enhance cardiac POCUS education. Proposed solutions include recommendations that curriculum developers intentionally sequence task fidelity, incorporate worked examples, and structure progressive exposure to real-world complexity. In summary, cardiac POCUS is being widely integrated across the medical education continuum with numerous challenges inherent to the broad application of cardiac POCUS, diverse educational settings, resource limitations, difficulty translating POCUS skills to the bedside, and lack of universal standards and approaches to assessment. Application of cognitive load theory to cardiac POCUS curriculum development may enhance skill development and clinical translation.