Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fatima, Huma
• Kuppalli, Sumanth
• Baribeau, Vincent
• Wong, Vanessa T
• Chaudhary, Omar
• Sharkey, Aidan
• Bordlee, John W
• Leibowitz, Akiva
• Murugappan, Kadhiresan
• Pannu, Ameeka
• Rubenstein, Lindsay A
• Walsh, Daniel P
• Kunze, Lisa J
• Stiles, Justin K
• Weinstein, Jeffrey
• Mahmood, Feroze
• Matyal, Robina
• Lodico, Derek N
• Mitchell, John

Titel

Comprehensive Ultrasound Course for Special Operations Combat and Tactical Medics

Ist Teil von

• Journal of special operations medicine, 2021, Vol.21 (4), p.54

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Advances in ultrasound technology with enhanced portability and high-quality imaging has led to a surge in its use on the battlefield by nonphysician providers. However, there is a consistent need for comprehensive and standardized ultrasound training to improve ultrasound knowledge, manual skills, and workflow understanding of nonphysician providers. Our team designed a multimodal ultrasound course to improve ultrasound knowledge, manual skills, and workflow understanding of nine Special Operations combat medics and Special Operations tactical medics. The course was based on a flipped classroom model with a total time of 43 hours, consisting of an online component followed by live lectures and hands-on workshops. The effectiveness of the course was determined using a knowledge exam, expert ratings of manual skills using a global rating scale, and an objective structured clinical skills examination (OSCE). The average knowledge exam score of the medics increased from pre-course (56% ± 6.8%) to post-course (80% ± 5.0%, p < .001). Based on expert ratings, their manual skills improved from baseline to day 4 of the course for image finding (p = .007), image optimization (p = .008), image acquisition speed (p = .008), final image quality (p = .008), and global assessment (p = .008). Their average score at every OSCE station was > 91%. A comprehensive multimodal training program can be used to improve military medics' ultrasound knowledge, manual skills, and workflow understanding for various applications of ultrasound. Further research is required to develop a reliable, sustainable course.