I am a fourth year emergency medicine resident at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. During my residency, I have received extensive training in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). Through a partnership with Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, I will be participating in a four week rotation in September 2023 to provide POCUS instruction to their emergency medicine trainees. With guidance from ultrasound fellowship-trained attendings at Highland, I will develop a four week curriculum that introduces the fundamentals of POCUS and its various clinical applications in the emergency care setting. During my rotation, I will lead hands-on teaching using a portable ultrasound machine in their emergency department. This will involve practicing scanning techniques with real-time interpretation of the images at the bedside. Additionally, I will deliver educational lectures during weekly didactic sessions. The project's primary objective is to empower emergency medicine providers at Aga Khan University Hospital to integrate POCUS into their daily clinical practice.
Aga Khan University Hospital is a large private, not-for-profit teaching hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Although it currently does not have a formally recognized emergency medicine specialty, Aga Khan is home to the first Diploma in Emergency Medicine course and has plans to establish an emergency medicine residency in the future.
The target audience for the hands-on POCUS training will be the emergency medicine trainees at Aga Khan University Hospital. POCUS is not yet routinely utilized by emergency medicine providers at Aga Khan University Hospital, but it has significant potential to enhance clinical care. Common applications of POCUS include procedural guidance for venous access, eFAST scans to identify internal bleeding in trauma patients, diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis, identification of early pregnancies, and many more. Gaining skills in POCUS will allow emergency medicine providers to provide advanced care to their patient population.
This elective rotation is a newly established partnership between Highland Hospital and Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. Although I will be the first visiting resident to teach POCUS at Aga Khan University Hospital, my hope is that future Highland emergency medicine residents will continue to participate in the program. The rotation offers residents the opportunity to engage in cross-cultural collaboration, strengthen bedside teaching skills, gain insights into resource-limited health systems, and contribute to the advancement of emergency medicine internationally. My goal is to establish a foundation for ongoing collaboration between our emergency medicine departments through case reviews, virtual conferences, and other educational activities.
In September 2023, I led a four week rotation to teach point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. This involved bedside teaching with staff physicians during weekday shifts to scan patients for cardiac ejection fraction, volume status, pneumothorax, and more. I also led two full days of POCUS didactics for the emergency medicine trainees, which included lectures and hands-on practice with the help of volunteers. The trainees were also able to practice ultrasound-guided procedures like central line placement. The rotation helped increase awareness, familiarity, and interest in utilizing POCUS on-shift for emergency medicine providers at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi.
