A Program of Assessment Model for Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training for Pediatric Critical Care Providers: A Comprehensive Approach to Enhance Competency-Based Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly accepted in pediatric critical care medicine as a tool for guiding the evaluation and treatment of patients. POCUS is a complex skill that requires user competency to ensure accuracy, reliability, and patient safety. A robust competency-based medical education (CBME) program ensures user competency and mitigates patient safety concerns.

Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound and Multi-Disciplinary Improvement Opportunities in Acute Systolic Heart Failure Management in a Pediatric Emergency Center.

Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has the ability to rapidly assess function and identify systolic heart failure (HF), an often-missed diagnosis. POCUS has the potential to expedite medical intervention, improving overall outcomes. There have been limited studies describing pediatric emergency center (EC) utilization of cardiac POCUS and its impact on outcomes in pediatric patients.

Diagnosing Acute Heart Failure in the Pediatric Emergency Department Using Point-of-Care Ultrasound.

Background: Acute heart failure (AHF) in children is associated with significant disease burden with high rates of morbidity, mortality, and resource utilization. These children often present to the emergency department with clinical features that mimic common childhood illnesses. Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can be an effective tool for rapidly identifying abnormal cardiac function.

A Multi-institutional Case Series With Review of Point-of-Care Ultrasound to Diagnose Malrotation and Midgut Volvulus in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

Point-of-care ultrasound can be used to screen for malrotation with and without volvulus in the newborn with bilious vomiting, as well as children with unexplained intermittent abdominal pain. We discuss cases where infants and children presenting to pediatric emergency departments with bilious vomiting and/or intermittent abdominal pain were initially screened for small bowel pathology with point-of-care ultrasound. Bedside findings suggestive of midgut volvulus were confirmed with radiology-performed ultrasound or upper gastrointestinal fluoroscopy.

Improving Pediatric Emergency Care by Implementing an Eligible Learner Endotracheal Intubation Policy.

Objectives: Although endotracheal intubations (ETIs) are high-risk, low-frequency events, there are no nationally accepted training pathways or measures to ensure ETI competence for emergency department (ED) providers. Our objective was to determine whether implementation of an eligible learner ETI policy (ELETIP) led to improved first ETI attempt success rates and decreased immediate airway-related complications.

Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional before-and-after study of outcomes after ELETIP implementation.