FP17 Newly introduced training course for “Rover Team” using ultrasound to respond to deteriorating inpatients

Abstract

i) Introduction: Rapid Response System (RRS) is one of the main methods to improve inpatient care.  When response team could provide more proactive assessments by using Point-Of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS), it would be effective to decide the treatment priority of multiple inpatients.  However, it is difficult for conventional Medical Emergency Team / Rapid Response Team to use ultrasound proficiently because an educational system has not been established.  Therefore, we developed a 1-hour introductory training course for “Rover Team” as a new type of response team.

ii) Materials & Methods: Training course includes a didactic lecture and simulation session using high-fidelity simulator.  Instructor gives a lecture on the basics of POCUS at the beginning of the course. Then, attendees are provided for simulation drill to find out the most acutely and critically inpatients. Educational effectiveness was analyzed through the surveillance questionnaires and simple examination paper before and after the course.  The questionnaires are: A. knowledge acquisition about the “Rover Team” using POCUS technique, B. promotion of understanding by simulation drill, and C. importance of ultrasound deployment for “Rover Team”.

iii) Results: Twenty-three attendees (16 MDs, 5 RNs, 1 PT and 1 CE) participated in the survey.  According to the surveillance, the numbers of attendees who scored more than four points out of five were as follows; A was 18 (78.3%), B was 17 (73.9%), and C was 19 (82.6%), respectively.  The number of average correct answers on simple examination paper increased from 2.39 to 2.70 out of 4.00 (p < 0.05).

iv) Discussion: Attendees can obtain relevant knowledges and skills by short time education.  POCUS is used daily for prompt and accurate diagnoses, for quickly identifying life-threatening conditions.  That is why ultrasound also has demonstrated its usefulness.  Newly introduced training course is effective for “Rover Team” to provide better practice.