Get good in Ped POCUS?

[FrkyBgStok]

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I just started PEM fellowship at a program that admits they aren’t super strong in POCUS. I know it isn’t used in the peds world like the adult world, but what can I do with the resources I have to get proficient in its use? Are there good text books or a website with a good curriculum? Podcasts that are actually useful? I know about some of those expensive courses and I am not above doing that, just need to get the right way to get it paid for. Hoping to get advice from those who are strong in it. If i get started recognizing what i need early, i can work on getting that. Thanks!

 

[gro2001]

I just started PEM fellowship at a program that admits they aren’t super strong in POCUS. I know it isn’t used in the peds world like the adult world, but what can I do with the resources I have to get proficient in its use? Are there good text books or a website with a good curriculum? Podcasts that are actually useful? I know about some of those expensive courses and I am not above doing that, just need to get the right way to get it paid for. Hoping to get advice from those who are strong in it. If i get started recognizing what i need early, i can work on getting that. Thanks!

Ma and Master's Emergency Ultrasound has been my go to reference. As far as books go, that's not a bad one to have around.
As a novice, I would recommend picking a new exam each week to be your focus. Like, this week you are doing gallbladder. Look up some videos (don't have to have loyalty to any one channel, keep searching until you find one that explains that specific topic well enough; you mostly just need probe position and expected images) and read the Ma chapter on that. And then scan every kid with abdominal pain that week, whether they need a gallbladder scan or not. Pick a new exam the following week. As you are doing this, keep track of all your scans, and QA yourself about false positives and false negatives. If you have the ability to save the images on a USB and review them every couple of months with an ultrasound faculty member, even better.

Exams I would focus on:

• Cardiac to r/o effusion
• Cardiac for global contractility
• Pulmonary for effusion
• Pulmonary for pneumothorax
• Gallbladder
• FAST
• Renal for hydronephrosis
• Bladder for size
• Intususception
• Soft tissue for abscess
• Vascular access (peripheral and central)
• +/- appendix
• +/-testicular

Exams I would not worry about:

• Ocular for ICP
• Fractures
• Pulmonary for PNA
• Anything more comprehensive on echo

Also, if your hospital has an EM program, they may have an ultrasound person there. Reach out to them, see what kind of connections you can make. Maybe ask your program director how they would look upon you putting together some sort of curriculum proposal to get you more exposure to POCUS. See what other people are doing POCUS at your institution. Is there a POCUS interest group at the med school? Is the PICU doing any teaching on POCUS for their fellows you can crash?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Is it worth getting a portable machine (one of those iPhone ones) to practice on my kids at home? Weird question, but trying to be efficient with it.

 

[SpacemanSpifff]

Is it worth getting a portable machine (one of those iPhone ones) to practice on my kids at home? Weird question, but trying to be efficient with it.

Practice without a QA/QI system in place involving a more accomplished sonographer is probably not going to be super high yield. You could become adequate at basic scans with self-directed online education, but unlikely to achieve proficiency.

 

[gro2001]

Is it worth getting a portable machine (one of those iPhone ones) to practice on my kids at home? Weird question, but trying to be efficient with it.

Does not sounds super high yield. It would be better to have one of those machines in the hospital, but then if you buy it yourself you might run into some issues of whether you are allowed to use it in the hospital without approval from the administration (though this is usually fixable by coordinating with biomedical to bring in the machine for them to tag as ok to use in the hospital).

A better way might be to apply for a small grant to purchase the machine and do this as part of a MedEd research project (on yourself).