POC Ultrasound Training for Rural Health

描述(申请人提供)：我们将提高农村卫生专业人员在使用护理点(POC)超声波方面的技能。我们将开发一种采用分布式教育的方法，以提供现场培训、形成性评估和能力测试。这项研究的基本原理是，现场分布式教育通过减少财政和后勤障碍并使患者能够持续护理，促进了农村提供者获得培训的机会。分布式教育允许在几周的时间内刻意练习，这可能比目前浓缩的1-2天继续医学教育课程产生更好的技能获得和保留。通过促进农村卫生保健人员的POC超声培训，拟议的研究促进了农村卫生保健，由于当地医疗资源稀缺以及患者、医生和卫生保健机构之间的距离，农村卫生保健在提供有效服务方面一直面临挑战。首批培训模块将侧重于心脏和产科超声，这是我们在调查5个州的WWAMI地区(华盛顿州、怀俄明州、阿拉斯加州、爱达荷州和蒙大拿州)时最经常要求的。为了实现这些目标，我们将修改一个模拟器，该模拟器是我们开发并验证的，用于在其他资金下培训心脏病学研究员。我们的具体目标是：#1：开发基于模拟器的分布式教育课程，为农村卫生保健提供者提供POC、心脏和产科超声技能的培训和形成性评估。将开发一种方法，以便在对正常志愿者进行初始扫描期间对每个受训人员进行远程指导。#2：通过测量从模拟器到活体受试者的技能迁移来评估分布式教育课程的教育有效性，并测量技能保持。#3：评估学员对分布式教育的满意度。本研究的保健效益是通过基于模拟器的分布式教育提高POC超声的安全和有效利用。交付内容是一个分布式教育模块，经过了培训效果、能力测试、转移到现场受试者扫描和远程学习的验证。根据本建议开发和验证的分布式教育方法将适用于POC超声的未来应用，例如程序指导。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We will enhance the skill of rural health professionals in the utilization of point of care (POC) ultrasound. We will develop an approach that employs distributed education to provide on-site training, formative assessment and competence testing. The rationale for this research is that distributed education on-site facilitates rural providers' access to training by reducing financial and logistical hurdles and by enabling continuity of care to their patients. Distributed education enables deliberate practice over a period of weeks, which may yield better skill acquisition and retention than current condensed 1-2 day continuing medical education courses. By facilitating training of rural health care providers in POC ultrasound, the proposed research advances rural health care, which has always faced challenges in providing effective service due to a scarcity of local medical resources and distance between patients, physicians, and health care facilities. The first training modules will focus on cardiac and obstetric ultrasound, which were most frequently requested when we surveyed the 5-state WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana). To achieve these goals we will modify a simulator that we developed and validated for training cardiology fellows under other funding. Our Specific Aims are: #1: To develop a simulator-based distributed education course to provide rural health care providers with training and formative assessment of skill in POC cardiac and obstetric ultrasound. A method will be developed to enable remote mentoring of each trainee during initial scanning of normal volunteers. #2: To assess the educational validity of the distributed education course by measuring the transference of skill from simulator to live subjects, and to measure retention of skill. #3: To assess trainee satisfaction with distributed education. The HEALTH CARE BENEFIT of this research is enhancement of the safe and effective utilization of POC ultrasound through simulator-based distributed education. The deliverable is a distributed education module that is validated for training efficacy, competency testing, transference to live subject scanning, and remote learning. The method of distributed education that is developed and validated under the present proposal will be applicable to future applications for POC ultrasound such as procedural guidance.