Confidence level of Australian veterinarians with point-of-care ultrasound before and after a training course.

Can Vet J

Department of Small Animal Veterinary Clinical Sciences, University of Liège, B42, Vallée District 2, Avenue de Cureghem 7A-7D, 4000 Liège, Belgium (Valcke, Gommeren); Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia (Manning); Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4Z6 (Boysen).

Published: September 2024

Objective: To determine if a short, hands-on, point-of-care course improves confidence of veterinary practitioners (VPs) in performing basic point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) applications and diagnosing specific POCUS pathologies.

Procedure: A 2-day POCUS course was offered, including 6 h of lectures and 4 h of hands-on training. A self-assessment survey, using a 4-point Likert scale, was administered before and after the course, to study VPs' confidence in attaining ultrasound skills and diagnosing pathologies.

Results: One hundred and thirteen participants answered the surveys: 65 (57.5%) completed pre- and post-practical surveys. Difference in confidence levels was assessed on paired pre-and post-practical surveys. Self-confidence increased significantly for each of the questions and for each field [pleural and lung POCUS (PLUS), abdominal POCUS, cardiac POCUS, and ultrasound-guided IV access] ( < 0.0001). Self-confidence was significantly higher for abdominal POCUS than for PLUS, cardiac POCUS and IV access before ( < 0.0001), but not following, completion of the course ( = 0.81).

Conclusion: A short, 2-day course significantly increased the confidence level of VPs in the realization and interpretation of PLUS, abdominal POCUS, and cardiac POCUS questions, and vascular access procedures. Following completion of the course, there was no significant difference in confidence levels among POCUS fields. This suggests the course allowed practitioners to obtain equal confidence across all POCUS applications.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11339889PMC

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