Volume 16, Issue 6, November 2015.
Jessica N. Schmidt, MD, MPH, et al.

Introduction: Quality resident education in point-of-care ultrasound (POC US) is becoming
increasingly important in emergency medicine (EM); however, the best methods to evaluate
competency in graduating residents has not been established. We sought to design and implement
a rigorous assessment of image acquisition and interpretation in POC US in a cohort of graduating
residents at our institution.
Methods: We evaluated nine senior residents in both image acquisition and image interpretation for
five core US skills (focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST), aorta, echocardiogram
(ECHO), pelvic, central line placement). Image acquisition, using an observed clinical skills exam
(OSCE) directed assessment with a standardized patient model. Image interpretation was measured
with a multiple-choice exam including normal and pathologic images.
Results: Residents performed well on image acquisition for core skills with an average score of
85.7% for core skills and 74% including advanced skills (ovaries, advanced ECHO, advanced aorta).
Residents scored well but slightly lower on image interpretation with an average score of 76%.
Conclusion: Senior residents performed well on core POC US skills as evaluated with a rigorous
assessment tool. This tool may be developed further for other EM programs to use for graduating
resident evaluation.