University School of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Renal Transplantation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Blood Purif. 2023;52(6):516-521. doi: 10.1159/000529263. Epub 2023 Feb 13.
Point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) is being increasingly recognized as an adjunct to physical examination in the field of nephrology. However, paucity of trained faculty and standardized curricula remain key barriers to widespread adoption of this skill as well as development of reliable quality assessment programs at the institutional level. Herein, we sought to explore the utility of Twitter polls to gain insights into knowledge deficits of the learners for making curricular improvements while simultaneously disseminating POCUS pearls and pitfalls.
A series of 57 single-question polls were tweeted over a 12-month period, each containing an ultrasound image or a video asking for correct interpretation. These were sent out from the Twitter handle of NephroPOCUS.com (@NephroP), an online POCUS education tool. The answer and a brief explanation were shared in a subsequent tweet at the end of the voting period. Information on the percentage of correct answers, Tweet impressions, and engagements was collected and analyzed by the pre-determined difficulty level (I-III) and the organ/learning objective being tested.
The number of responses per poll was 228 ± 94.6 (mean ± SD), and the percentage of correct responses was 57.9 ± 17.5 (mean ± SD). 16 (of 57) polls received less than 50% correct responses, of which 8 belonged to level III difficulty. The learning objectives that received the least number of correct responses in the kidney, cardiac, lung, vascular, and other categories were identification of end-stage kidney (16.2% correct answers), right pleural effusion on the parasternal short axis view of the heart (29%), right pleural effusion from the subxiphoid window (39%), grading of systemic venous congestion (27.3%), and identification of ascites on the right lateral chest window (15%), respectively. The overall engagement rate was 6.96%, which was above the median for health and higher education-related tweets on Twitter. Targeted didactic material was developed based on these results, published on various open-access nephrology education platforms.
Twitter polls aid in identifying the knowledge gaps among POCUS learners. Information obtained from the polls can be used to improve POCUS-related curricula and develop targeted educational material to facilitate remote learning.
床边超声检查（POCUS）在肾脏病学领域正逐渐被视为体格检查的辅助手段。然而，缺乏经过培训的教师和标准化课程仍然是广泛采用该技能以及在机构层面制定可靠质量评估计划的关键障碍。在此，我们试图通过推特民意调查来了解学习者的知识缺陷，以便改进课程，同时传播 POCUS 的要点和陷阱。
在 12 个月的时间里，共发布了 57 个单问题民意调查，每个调查都包含一个超声图像或视频，要求正确解释。这些民意调查是由在线 POCUS 教育工具 NephroPOCUS.com（@NephroP）的推特账户发出的。投票结束后，在后续推文中分享答案和简要解释。通过预先确定的难度级别（I-III）和正在测试的器官/学习目标，收集和分析了正确答案百分比、推文印象和参与度的信息。
每个民意调查的回复数为 228 ± 94.6（平均值 ± 标准差），正确回复百分比为 57.9 ± 17.5（平均值 ± 标准差）。57 个民意调查中有 16 个（占 16%）的回复正确率低于 50%，其中 8 个属于难度级别 III。在肾脏、心脏、肺部、血管和其他类别中，获得的正确回复数最少的学习目标是识别终末期肾病（16.2%的正确答案）、心尖短轴胸骨旁视图上的右侧胸腔积液（29%）、剑突下窗右侧胸腔积液（39%）、系统静脉充血分级（27.3%）和右侧侧胸窗上的腹水识别（15%）。总体参与率为 6.96%，高于推特上健康和高等教育相关推文的中位数。根据这些结果开发了有针对性的教学材料，并在各种开放获取的肾脏病学教育平台上发表。
推特民意调查有助于确定 POCUS 学习者的知识差距。民意调查中获得的信息可用于改进与 POCUS 相关的课程，并制定有针对性的教育材料，以促进远程学习。
