Point of Care Ultrasound

Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Opportunities 

Core Experiences

All residents will have the following POCUS training experience.

  • Robust hands-on didactic instruction during R1 year in numerous POCUS areas including musculoskeletal (MSK) topics, OB, skin/soft tissue, pulmonary, volume assessment, AAA, renal, gallbladder, and DVT assessments. This lecture series includes over 15 hours of training.
  • Opportunity to incorporate POCUS clinically while working on the Family Medicine Inpatient service as the team has regular access to a Butterfly probe and experienced clinical faculty.
  • Opportunity to incorporate POCUS clinically at all 3 core clinical sites. Each site has a dedicated high-quality cart-based ultrasound.
  • Opportunity to incorporate POCUS clinically during adult EM rotations while working with nationally recognized attending experts in POCUS.
  • Opportunity to practice OB ultrasound while on the OB rotation both for fetal position on labor and delivery and also more detailed scans while working with outpatient attendings at Sacred Circle doing prenatal care.

Additional Opportunities

For residents with increased interest in POCUS training, the following supplemental educational activities are available.

  • MSK ultrasound elective: Residents work directly with Sport Medicine FM faculty trained in POCUS and get hands-on training in both diagnostic and procedural guidance POCUS techniques.
  • MFM ultrasound elective: Residents work directly with MFM attendings and sonographers performing ultrasound on high-risk obstetric patients.
  • Self-Study POCUS elective: Residents work through numerous high-quality self-study modules and practice POCUS utilizing a Butterfly probe and equipment that they are allowed to check out. This is a great option to maintain/improve skills while also allowing the flexibility to work/study from home or other locations. Involvement in giving didactic presentations on sports medicine related topics.
  • Inpatient procedures elective: Residents will work with the inpatient procedures team that performs all of the bedside procedures for the inpatient adult medicine hospitalist service. The great majority of the procedures are ultrasound sound guided.
  • Access to a state-of-the-art ultrasound simulation lab with simulation models that have numerous clinical scenarios to walk through utilizing POCUS.

Additional Opportunities Coming Soon

For all residents:

  • POCUS credentialling process such that residents can be informally certified by the residency program to perform the various POCUS exams once they have achieved the required proctored exams and skill level needed to independently perform POCUS exams.
  • POCUS clinic: Residents work one on one with a POCUS trained FM faculty in one of our primary care clinics performing POCUS exams as needed on patients presenting to clinic that day

For residents with increased interest in POCUS training:

  • AAA screening clinic: Special clinic dedicated to performing guideline appropriate AAA screening on patients identified in our primary care clinics and referred for screening. Residents will work one on one with a POCUS trained FM attending to screen for AAA.
  • POCUS elective: Residents will work with various attendings and in various settings including ED, MSK clinics, OB clinics, and primary care clinic performing POCUS exams.