I will be coordinating a multi-day point of care ultrasound (POCUS) workshop for providers at Robert Reid Cabral (RRC) Hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Educational initiatives will include didactic lectures, bedside clinical teaching and simulation on models. Curriculum will incorporate a "teach alongside" model where local providers will act in educational roles during the workshop with a focus on sustainability. This workshop is a result of collaboration between physician partners at RRC and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Providers will learn and expand upon their current POCUS skills in order to provide faster and more comprehensive care for their patients. This site visit will also include meetings to discuss infrastructure creating, relationship building and sustainability of ongoing POCUS use and education in this setting.
Target learners include pediatric emergency medicine and pediatric critical care providers including attendings, fellows, residents and medical students. These providers provide care to pediatric patients in a large tertiary care children's hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic which serves as a referral center for children from all over the country and Haiti. They serve an ill and under resourced patient population which has shown incredible benefit from pilot interventions with POCUS education. This provider group was targeted as it had reached out to our hospital to express a specific interest in POCUS education. In addition, the hospital has the resources to be able to therapeutically intervene on abnormal POCUS findings. For example, a patient in respiratory distress was found to have a pericardial effusion using POCUS, which otherwise may not have been discovered. The hospital was able to arrange and perform the appropriate procedure to relieve the effusion the following day. In addition, the provider group has committed to longitudinal POCUS learning goals in bidirectional exchange of education and POCUS cases. It is the perfect setting where educational resources will make a giant impact on patient care.
Providers will gain additional skills in POCUS which will be multifactorial in impact. First, they will gain confidence and skills in performing real time diagnostic imaging that has the potential to change patient diagnosis and management at the bedside. POCUS is especially impactful in this setting, where alternative radiology eg x-ray or CT is often limited in availability. In addition to providing additional information regarding a patient's clinical status, this workshop will also allow providers to gain experience in POCUS education so that they can disseminate skills locally to colleagues to expand impact. Lastly, we will be focusing on a teach alongside and train-the-trainer model to hone skills of local POCUS champions that are emerging. After I return, I will have continued collaboration and communication with our partner group via virtual case discussions and case sharing.
We provided point of care ultrasound training for dozens of inpatient pediatricians including pediatric emergency and pediatric intensive care specialists. The training will enabled these physicians to improve the care they provide to their pediatric patients who otherwise might not have access to medical imaging. Ultrasound findings made at the bedside that can be lifesaving and aid with diagnosis and treatment.
