Ultrasound in Medical Education Scientific Session 1
The use of Faculty Development Courses to Increase eFAST Utilization and Confidence
Sunday, April 7, 2024
9:18am – 9:25am
Location: 410
Authors: Jacqueline Gomberg, NYU Langone Health/ Bellevue Jacqueline Gomberg, NYU Langone Health/ Bellevue Ee Tay, NYU Langone MAYA LIN, NYU / Bellevue Yvonne Huang, NYU/Bellevue Philip Lin, NYU Langone Health ,
The eFAST (Extended Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma) scan is invaluable for rapid, non-invasive evaluations of traumatic intra-abdominal injury. It has come to the forefront of academic Emergency Medicine (EM) across all levels of training. However, while EM programs have many official requirements for current trainees when it pertains to training in POCUS, there have been few official curricula for practicing EM faculty—who may have graduated long before POCUS was standard training—to develop proficiency in this skill. We held an eFAST faculty development course in an inner-city, public, hospital, coordinated by the Division of EM Ultrasound with a goal of increasing confidence in performing eFAST exams and increasing the number of self reported eFAST exams performed. Although our faculty development was well received and had an increased likelihood in changing clinical practice, the attitudes on their comfortableness to perform, interpret, and teach the eFAST scans was not statistically significantly impacted by the session. More studies need to be performed to investigate whether other types of scanning sessions should take more priority over eFAST for learning and skills retention.