Assessment of a hospitalist clinical ultrasound training program for limited cardiovascular assessment in sepsis

To improve sepsis management, a POCUS educational curriculum was developed and implemented for hospitalists; the primary aim of the study was to assess their ability to adequately acquire and interpret images for a limited cardiovascular ultrasound (CVUS) assessment for sepsis. They received didactic training, completed a knowledge assessment, and acquired images.

A total of 41 hospitalists participated in the training program, but only 20 submitted images after scanning independently. Despite a significant time investment (>80 hours) and some previous ultrasound educational training for participants, a limited one-day educational intervention was unsuccessful at teaching image acquisition and interpretation for a focused CVUS exam; however, image interpretation skills did improve. This highlights the many challenges facing hospitalist POCUS training programs, particularly for image acquisition.