Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Assessments in Health Professionals: A Comparison of a POCUS Simulator to Standardized Patients

Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) is widely used in medicine to enhance decision-making processes for providers; however, formal training is lacking. A curriculum for POCUS training was initiated by the NYU Department of Medicine with standardized patients (SP’s) used for skills assessments. However, the use of SP’s is costly, time consuming, requires large numbers of trained faculty, and is limited to normal ultrasound findings. In an effort to standardize and streamline the skills assessment process, we incorporated the BodyWorks Eve POCUS simulator into the POCUS curriculum and compared results using SP’s and the simulator for attendings and residents.