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Table 3 Summary of themes and recommendations for POCUS faculty curriculum design

From: Motivations, barriers, and professional engagement: a multisite qualitative study of internal medicine faculty’s experiences learning and teaching point-of-care ultrasound

Theme

Recommendations

Improved teaching performance

Targeted recruitment of clinician-educators

Integrate POCUS skills with traditional bedside teaching exams

Leverage support from undergraduate and graduate medical educational leadership

Enhanced patient care

Highlight “return to the bedside” and potential to improve patient experience in faculty recruitment and advocating for resources with administrative leadership

Prioritize curriculum content to address common real-world applications

Curricular needs

Community building among learners via peer-learning and communal experiences e.g. partner scanning, group image review, journal club, etc.

Longitudinal training & feedback: Regularly scheduled sessions with experts (in-person or virtual). Quality assurance process with synchronous and/or asynchronous image review and feedback.

Graduated skills training, progressing from simple to more complicated skills and exams

Workflow integration

Maximize portability and accessibility of equipment. Make handheld devices available and place shared devices in strategic locations, such as workrooms or patient care areas

Integration of image archiving and documentation into existing systems and workflow

Curriculum flexibility to support individualized learning and scheduling e.g. online lectures, access to simulation trainers, standing “office hours” for expert coaching, flexible deadlines for portfolio generation

Administrative support

Leverage support by considering how POCUS can address institutional needs and priorities for the hospital, department, and/or educational program

Highlight potential of POCUS training to mitigate feelings of burnout

Establish billing system for POCUS exams to offset resource needs

Highlight potential for improved patient care outcomes e.g. diagnostic accuracy and procedural safety

Engagement with work

Promote potential to improve work engagement and combat burnout when recruiting faculty and soliciting administrative support.