Comparison of Clerkship Directors' Expectations of Physical Examination Skills with Point-of-care Ultrasound Skills Using the RIME Framework

Valérie Desjardins; Paul Pageau; Barbara Power; Isabelle Burnier; Carolina Souza; Warren J Cheung; Michael Y Woo

doi:10.24908/pocus.v6i2.15192

Comparison of Clerkship Directors' Expectations of Physical Examination Skills with Point-of-care Ultrasound Skills Using the RIME Framework

POCUS J. 2021 Nov 23;6(2):93-96. doi: 10.24908/pocus.v6i2.15192. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Valérie Desjardins¹, Paul Pageau², Barbara Power³, Isabelle Burnier¹, Carolina Souza⁴, Warren J Cheung⁵, Michael Y Woo⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Ottawa.
² Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital.
³ Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital.
⁴ Department of Radiology, University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital.
⁵ Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Abstract

Background: The expectations of point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) in undergraduate clerkship at the University of Ottawa has not been described. We compared clerkship directors' expectations of physical examination skills with PoCUS skills, before and after completing the clerkship rotation. Methods: A pilot-tested, expert developed, bilingual on-line survey consisting of 15 questions was sent to all clerkship directors (23) in December 2019. The survey included questions regarding the expectations of medical students with respect to physical examination and PoCUS using the RIME Framework: none, reporter, interpreter, manager, educator. Results: The response rate was 60.9% (14/23). With regards to physical exam skills, 82.8% of directors had no expectations or expected students to be reporters when starting clerkship. At graduation, 77.5% of directors expected students to be interpreters, managers, or educators. For PoCUS, 100.0% of directors had no expectations or expected students to be reporters when starting clerkship. At clerkship completion, 33.0% of directors felt that students should be interpreters or managers for PoCUS skills. Conclusions: Clerkship directors have low expectations of PoCUS skills for entering and graduating clerks when compared with their physical examination skills despite formal pre-clerkship PoCUS objectives. Enhanced communication and targeted education of directors could improve the PoCUS curriculum.

Keywords: point-of-care ultrasound; undergraduate clerkship.