The present quantitative open research aims at defining the extent to which the use of the point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) alters the diagnosis procedure among general practitioners (GPs). With more than 500 patients participating in the trial, the change in diagnoses was examined in nearly half the cases. The alterations also included medication prescriptions and early diagnostics of various medical conditions. The study is significant for the research because it directly represents the scopes of POCUS impact on the treatment process. Thus, it justifies the paper’s argument that POCUS treatment among professionals is key in terms of securing better health care outcomes.
The primary objective of the present research article is to present an exhaustive definition of POCUS and its current areas of application among healthcare professionals. Besides the description of POCUS as an instrument to secure timely medical intervention and diagnosis, Arnold et al. (2020) differentiate between clinical conditions with strong, moderate, and limited evidence supporting the use of such an ultrasound. The study also describes the existing patterns of POCUS training within medical curricula. Hence, the article assists the present research in terms of studying the essence of POCUS technology prior to supporting its integration in the general medical practice.
The extensive use of POCUS technology has always been primarily associated with assistance in terms of diagnostics and treatment intervention. Thus, the study conducted by Atkinson et al. (2018) aims at examining how the introduction of POCUS in addition to electrocardiographic (ECG) tests helps identify cardiac activity that may catalyze certain medical conditions. The results of the research demonstrated that patients initially screened with ECG benefited from the additional POCUS intervention due to the ultrasound’s abilities to visualize cardiac activity patterns. Thus, the present study is significant for the research due to its ability to justify the positive outcomes of the POCUS implementation in general medical practice.
The present study may be rightfully considered one of the most significant for the designated research, as it provides explicit evidence on the effectiveness of simulated POCUS training among emergency medicine (EM) physicians. Azizi et al. (2020) defined that a simulation-based POCUS workshop increased both the professional skills and confidence of EM physicians in Pakistan. Thus, the present study contributes to the identification of proper methodology of POCUS training intervention among general physicians. Moreover, this experimental study’s questionnaires tackle such important questions as accessibility to POCUS equipment and how it impacts the overall perception of POCUS utilization during an intervention.
The primary objective of the present study is to provide an extensive presentation of the findings from POCUS training interventions in Kenya. First, the study presents evidence that conducting POCUS workshops increases the rates of the professionals using the tool on a regular basis during screenings. Second, the study addresses a significant issue of equipment shortage, as it serves as a primary barrier in terms of productive POCUS use. One of the solutions presented by Jones et al. (2020) is the utilization of intradepartmental and interorganizational exchanges of resources (p. 38). Thus, the study presents a value for the designated research in terms of presenting the options of both financial and functional organization of an extensive POCUS workshop network among healthcare professionals.
The present study aims at describing a complicated process of POCUS credentialing among emergency medicine physicians. According to Kim et al. (2020), there currently exists a gap in terms of quality POCUS training in all medical establishments, as many treating physicians completed a residency program with no POCUS milestone included in the curriculum. As a result, many clinicians ignore further POCUS treatment because they consider the process to be time-consuming and irrelevant to their sphere of expertise. Hence, this research contributes to the problem statement of the designated research, stating that there is a demand for an efficient credentialing program among professionals.
The present study is a specialization-oriented overview of the significance of POCUS treatment. According to Li et al. (2020), the current sphere of anesthesiology requires a meaningful and efficient national curriculum on POCUS training in order to improve the quality of data obtained from preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative interventions. The study is beneficial in terms of representing an exhaustive classification of various POCUS applications such as focused cardiac ultrasound, lung ultrasound, gastric ultrasound, and the use of ultrasound for airway management (p. 1). The study also emphasized the potential efficiency of simulation-based learning. Hence, it is relevant to study due to the authors’ intention to justify the need for meaningful POCUS training among healthcare professionals across the vast majority of medical specialties.
The book by Sethi et al. (2021) presents an extensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of POCUS implementation in pediatric care. As a result, it is extremely beneficial in terms of obtaining a critical perspective on the matter of POCUS introduction. For example, the authors claim that POCUS, although beneficial, remains extremely operator-dependent and cannot exist in isolation from other diagnostics techniques (Sethi et al., 2021). Moreover, the book may be utilized to gather all the necessary data concerning the description of equipment and primary functions of POCUS. Hence, it is extremely useful for preliminary research on the matter of POCUS adequacy in health care and patient assessment.
The present study serves as a significant contribution to the consideration of the empirical models that should be used for successful training. If previous studies with similar objectives focused on the utilization of the simulation-based learning model, Smith et al. (2018) examined the hypothesis of near-peer teaching of POCUS use. As the findings suggest a positive potential for such a learning environment, the study presents a value of describing an option for meaningful training intervention in a financially limited environment. Briefly speaking, the results of the study present an argument that POCUS training brings positive change even when introduced with no considerable financial investments on the administration’s part.
The present empirical research outlines the fundamental benefit of POCUS efficiency in terms of emergency medicine. Urquhart et al. (2021) made an attempt to compare the emergency department (ED) length of stay for patients with an uncomplicated intrauterine pregnancy regarding the type of ultrasound they underwent during the admission. The results indicated that in the overwhelming majority of cases, patients screened with the help of POCUS were scanned and dismissed from the ED considerably faster compared to the patients who waited for a specialist and underwent a radiology department ultrasound. The study is valuable because of its explicit evidence of the POCUS benefit in the context of uncomplicated medical cases, encouraging the introduction of training among physicians and ED professionals.
Obtaining necessary equipment to secure efficient POCUS training and use is, by all means, the most significant barrier for the vast majority of health facilities. In the present article, Wagner (2019) provides an exhaustive description of how POCUS equipment is acquired by health professionals, an approximate price range of the equipment, and who pays for the equipment obtained. Using this information is crucial for the evaluation of the proposal’s feasibility.
References
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Arnold, M. J., Jonas, C. E., & Carter, R. E. (2020). Point-of-care ultrasonography. American Family Physician, 101(5), 275-285.
Atkinson, P. R., Keyes, A. W., O’Donnell, K., Beckett, N., Banerjee, A., Fraser, J., & Lewis, D. (2018). Do electrocardiogram rhythm findings predict cardiac activity during a cardiac arrest? A study from the sonography in cardiac arrest and hypotension in the emergency department (SHoC-ED) investigators. Cureus, 10(11).
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Li, L., Yong, R. J., Kaye, A. D., & Urman, R. D. (2020). Perioperative point of care ultrasound (POCUS) for anesthesiologists: An overview. Current Pain and Headache Reports, 24(5), 1-15.
Sethi, S. K., Raina, R., McCulloch, M., & Moritz, M. L., (2021). Advances in critical care pediatric nephrology: Point of care ultrasound and diagnostics. Springer Nature.
Smith, C. J., Matthias, T., Beam, E., Wampler, K., Pounds, L., Nickol, D., Carlson, K., & Michael, K. (2018). Building a bigger tent in point-of-care ultrasound education: A mixed-methods evaluation of interprofessional, near-peer teaching of internal medicine residents by sonography students. BMC Medical Education, 18(1), 1-8.
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Wagner, M. (2019). Considerations when acquiring point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) equipment: Advice for general internists. SGIM Forum, 42(12).