I will be going to San Juan, Ponce, and other cities in Puerto Rico to various hospitals teaching basic and advanced ultrasound to emergency medicine physicians, residents, nurses, and other providers. We will be doing lectures as well as hands on learning. This will include how to optimize images and clinical integration in order to become more efficient during medical/trauma resuscitations especially when CT/MRI imaging is not readily available.
Residents, attending physicians, nurses and other providers of the San Juan and Ponce area will benefit from this trip. It is necessary to teach and improve/advance ultrasound skills given the expense and time consumption of CT/MRI scanning if even available. Ultrasound is a definitive measure and affect decision making time especially when it comes to traumas or unstable patients. The providers are the first in contact with resuscitations in the emergency room.
I expect an increase appreciation and education/awareness for ultrasound given its low cost and efficiency in the emergency setting when other imaging may not be accessible. Seeing the progression of skill of the providers and the increased comfort will hopefully push them to use ultrasound more and the teach others as well. I plan on continuing teaching and creating a continuum in which returning to PR on a regular basis will be in place.
We traveled with 10+ fellows/ultrasound faculty to teach basic and advanced ultrasound in San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez Puerto Rico. The learners ranged from medical students to residents to general practioners.
