Patrick Bafuma, PA-C, is the lead physician assistant in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Columbia Memorial Hospital, Hudson, New York.
Janelle Bludorn, MS, PA-C, is a clinical assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
J Physician Assist Educ. 2020 Mar;31(1):28-32. doi: 10.1097/JPA.0000000000000289.
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), despite its rapid integration into undergraduate medical education curriculum, remains underutilized among physician assistant (PA) programs, with a resultant training gap between PAs and their physician collaborators. Herein, we present the Yes, iScan Ultrasound event, piloted at the 2018 American Academy of PAs (AAPA) conference, as a means to generate PA student interest in, and introductory engagement with, the emerging clinical adjunct of POCUS.
Physician assistant students and instructors were recruited to voluntarily participate. Student participants received pre-event online training access. They then competed in a team-based 8-hour competition covering core POCUS concepts of image acquisition, interpretation, and clinical implementation. Student participants' pre- and post-event self-assessments of their knowledge of how ultrasound could be implemented into clinical practice were analyzed using a 2-tailed t-test.
A total of 62 students participated in the competition, with a post-event response rate of 53%. Surveys demonstrated a statistically significant post-event increase in knowledge of how ultrasound integrates into clinical practice from 3.9 to 6 (7-point Likert scale, P-value < .01, 95% confidence interval -2.51 to -1.76). Seventy-nine percentage of students reported being highly engaged throughout the event, with 95% of students recommending recurring incorporation into future AAPA conferences.
Students reported high engagement and a significant increase in their knowledge of how POCUS may integrate into clinical practice following their participation. Although these data suggest that such events are successful at generating enthusiasm for this emerging clinical adjunct, further studies on the impact of the event toward increased POCUS integration into PA education are recommended.
尽管即时护理超声（POCUS）已迅速纳入本科医学教育课程，但在医师助理（PA）项目中仍未得到充分利用，导致 PA 与他们的医师合作者之间存在培训差距。在此，我们介绍了 Yes，iScan Ultrasound 活动，该活动在 2018 年美国医师助理学院（AAPA）会议上试行，旨在激发 PA 学生对新兴的即时护理超声辅助技术的兴趣，并初步接触该技术。
招募 PA 学生和教师自愿参与。学生参与者可提前在线接受培训。然后，他们在一个基于团队的 8 小时竞赛中竞争，涵盖即时护理超声的核心概念，包括图像采集、解释和临床应用。使用双尾 t 检验分析学生参与者在活动前后对他们关于如何将超声应用于临床实践的知识的自我评估。
共有 62 名学生参加了比赛，活动后的回复率为 53%。调查显示，学生对超声如何融入临床实践的知识在活动后显著增加，从 3.9 分提高到 6 分（7 分制，P 值<0.01，95%置信区间-2.51 至-1.76）。79%的学生表示在整个活动中高度参与，95%的学生建议在未来的 AAPA 会议上重复纳入此类活动。
学生报告说，他们在参与后高度参与，并且对即时护理超声如何融入临床实践的知识有了显著提高。尽管这些数据表明此类活动成功激发了学生对这一新兴临床辅助技术的热情，但建议进一步研究该活动对增加 PA 教育中即时护理超声整合的影响。
