Ultrasound Honors

EMER 7910 Ultrasound Honors

Brief Description of Course

This course is a capstone course for students in the Ultrasound Honors Program. Ultrasound Honors IV involves a mixture of advanced scanning, independent study, near peer teaching, research, and quality improvement projects related to ultrasound education in the school of medicine. Ultrasound Honors IV allows students who have spent multiple years in the Ultrasound Honors program to have focused time to invest in these endeavors and advance their ultrasound skills in their four year of study. Students will divide their time between scanning patients in the emergency department, teaching ultrasound to more junior medical students (clinical and didactic), completing a project (research or quality improvement for the Ultrasound Honors program), and studying advanced ultrasound modules. The teaching and project component of this course is especially important, as students may be in a position to develop ultrasound programs for their residency, specialty, or beyond in the future. The objective is to provide mentored experience in these professional skills as they relate to ultrasound. Students will decide their individualized elective plan and project in coordination with the course director in advance on the course.

This course requires permission from the course director to enroll. It is intended to provide students who have participated in > 2 years of the Ultrasound Honors Program an opportunity to further develop their ultrasound clinical and leadership skills before becoming interns. Participation in at least two years of the Ultrasound Honors program is essential preparation for this course. This course is designed to hone a foundation of well developed ultrasound skills into advanced ultrasound skills and requires independent scanning. Those who have not completed the prerequisites would not be able to perform at the level expected for this course. 

Course Objectives

As a result of successfully completing the Ultrasound Honors IV, students will be able to: 

1. Know the appropriate indication for performing focused clinical ultrasound
2. Perform image acquisition for focused clinical ultrasound
3. Correctly interpret images of focused clinical ultrasound
4. Understand how to use results of focused clinical ultrasound to influence medical decision making
5. Develop knowledge of ultrasound learning resources to utilize for lifelong learning of focused ultrasound
6. Explore and solidify focused ultrasound teaching skills in clinical and classroom environment
7. Complete ultrasound quality improvement or research project in focused ultrasound
8. Establish foundation for becoming a physician leader in focused clinical ultrasound

Course Format and Schedule

Timeline

40 hours per week. Below are the average hours per week:

• Study modules - 18 hours
• Clinical scanning shifts - 8 hours
• Near Peer Instruction - 6 hours
• Project - 8 hours

Educational and Instructional Modalities