Primary Care and Family Medicine Physicians have much to gain from integrating point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) into their clinical practice. The applications are growing as the use of ultrasound has increased in the emergency and critical care environment. Ultrasound is now being utilized to manage chronic diseases like heart failure, hypertension, AAA and others. It allows the patients who need weekly paracentesis or thoracentesis procedures the availability to go to an outpatient clinic versus utilizing the emergency room and adding to the overwhelming patient crowd. POCUS is essentially an extension of the physical exam already being performed. It is a focused exam, performed at the bedside and directed
to asking a specific question that can be used to diagnose or treat the patient or perform a procedure. It improves patient care, outcomes and satisfaction while decreasing cost and time involved.
In order to effectively use POCUS, education and training are necessary. Although the didactic information is crucial to the overall success of utilizing ultrasound, the real expertise can only be gained through practice with scanning. Hands-on experience with the transducer on a variety of patients is the only way to improve the skill level of the physician and thereby increase their competence and confidence.
Gulfcoast Ultrasound has teamed up with the POCUS Certification Academy as an Education Provider to provide the education and training necessary to become proficient in point-of-care ultrasound. The Blended Introduction to Abdominal and Primary Care and OB/GYN Ultrasound courses offer 15 months of unlimited access to the online course featuring expert faculty who cover a wide range of topics from abdominal, trauma, thyroid, scrotal, and soft-tissue applications, to transabdominal and endovaginal scan techniques and OB applications.
In addition, the hands on scan workshop is located at the Gulfcoast facility in St. Petersburg. All Scan Workshops feature a 3:1 or less participant to instructor ratio on live models for the most realistic and practical hands-on training experience. We invite you to join us for an upcoming POCUS course. Visit our website or call us at 727-363-4500 for more information. For more information about POCUS and POCUS Certification Academy, visit pocus.org. Also, be sure to check out their podcast “Looking at POCUS from a Big Picture Perspective” which dives deeper into how ultrasound is changing the face of primary care and family medicine.
