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. 2021 Apr 10;51(8):1386–1399. doi: 10.1007/s00247-021-04997-x

Table 9.

Training strategies (n=14)

Author Year Country Department Design Training method
Cohen [96] 2012 USA Emergency Survey 76% received bedside/informal teaching, 23% received training by lectures and 16% by workshops or full-day course
Conlon [97] 2015 USA PICU Prospective training study (general training)

- 2-day introductory course: didactic and hands-on training sessions with max 5 students per trainer; 4 consensus-derived training modules (procedural, hemodynamic, thoracic and abdominal)

- Demonstration of skills after >25 acceptable studies per module

- Reviewing of POCUS images twice a week by non-radiologist POCUS experts and once a month by radiology department

Corbett [38] 2000 USA Emergency Prospective training study (post trauma) 1-day training course: didactic lectures, a videotaped session with instruction on trauma US, videotape with real-time images of pathology, hands-on workshop on healthy volunteers and finally a test using images
Gold [98] 2017 USA Emergency Survey Didactics (70%), simulations in skills lab (52%), structured rotations by trained faculty (39%) or no US education (12%)
Guedj [31] 2015 France Emergency Prospective training study (single-organ POCUS)

- 1–2-h didactic session (basics, physics, UTI sonography)

- Hands-on training: 5 procedures

Hoeffe [99] 2016 Canada Emergency Survey Radiology rotation (28%), official course (45%), no training (28%)
Kornblith [100] 2015 USA Emergency Survey Not specified
Kwan [101] 2019 Canada Emergency Prospective training study (general training) Via an online POCUS image interpretation learning and assessment system with 100 cases per application (e.g., FAST, lung, cardiac) with acceptable quality and showing a spectrum of pathology and normal anatomy. Included short clinical presentation, a video and image. Trainees could respond if case was normal/abnormal, and in case of abnormal the area of abnormality was to be selected, and they received feedback
Marin [6] 2012 USA Emergency Survey Bedside (40%), general emergency management physician training (40%), formal course (25%), outside CME course (10%), radiology training (8%)
Nguyen [102] 2016 USA NICU/PICU Survey Bedside (63%), lectures (54%), workshops (47/65%), self-study (47/43%), radiology rotation (26/5%) (NPM/PCCM, respectively)
Ramirez–Schremp [103] 2008 USA Emergency Survey US rotation (33%), hands-on experience (33%), conferences (41%)
Reaume [7] 2019 USA Emergency Survey Procedure-only training (34%), rotations in other departments (22%), no US training (12%)
Riera [23] 2012 USA Emergency Prospective training study (single-organ POCUS)

- All trainees had >1 month of clinical instruction in performing a variety of POCUS procedures in emergency department (100–150 procedures on adults). No previous experience with bowel US

- 1 h focused training session: didactic component and hands-on scanning with child as a model

Scaife [39] 2013 USA Emergency Prospective training study (FAST)

- Technical instruction, viewing an instructional video, didactic session including hands-on training

- At least 30 exams, of which 5 were proctored by certified paediatric sonographer or certified adult emergency medicine physician and of which at least 5 were positive for abdominal free fluid

- Final competence exam (patients with ascites or ventriculoperitoneal shunt). Topics for exam: detection of intra-abdominal fluid, orientation and accuracy of probe placement, adequate scanning through fields, acceptable efficiency/time frame and ability to obtain key structures

Shefrin [104] 2019 USA Emergency Delphi procedure Not applicable
Wyrick [30] 2014 USA Surgery Prospective training study (single-organ POCUS) Five hands-on exams

CME continuing medical education, FAST focused abdominal sonography for trauma, NICU neonatal intensive care unit, NPM neonatal perinatal medicine, PCCM pediatric critical care medicine, PICU paediatric intensive care unit, POCUS point-of-care ultrasound, UTI urinary tract infection