Point of Care Ultrasound Simulation Education

Project Details

Physician-performed point of care (at the patient’s bedside) ultrasound to enhance clinical examination is established in anaesthesia, critical care and emergency medicine clinical practice and is becoming adopted by nearly all medical specialties. Ultrasound takes much of the guess-work out of clinical examination, improving accuracy and speed of definitive diagnosis of a wide range of pathology such as cardiac, respiratory, abdominal, musculoskeletal disorders. Ultrasound is also now also routinely used to improve precision and safety of percutaneous medical procedures such as insertion of intra-venous and intra-arterial catheters.

Point of care ultrasound is becoming increasingly taught in medical schools and is already estimated to be integrated in around two-thirds of medical schools in the USA. Our unit are World leaders in ultrasound education with over 15 year’s experience and the largest ultrasound simulation centre (FUSE - Focused Ultrasound Simulation Education) in the Southern Hemisphere, from which over 1800 students/clinicians have completed short ultrasound courses since its inception in 2014.

This year our unit has begun teaching medical students, nurses and physiotherapists, representing a significant expansion. Our unit has established a new educational research stream: ultrasound simulation, investigating methods of increasing teaching efficiency with the goal of developing a truly scalable method of teaching.

The aims of the proposed research program will be to modify existing and develop new ultrasound courses using simulators and extending the courses to include ultrasound training of patients with pathology.

  1. Research students will develop a good grounding in performance and interpretation of bed-side ultrasound, both diagnostic (eg. heart, lung, abdomen, deep venous thrombosis) and procedural (eg. vascular access, thoracocentesis, pericardiocentesis), as well as developing skills in teaching these skills.
  2. Research students will also gain skills in writing educational material, video-editing along with research, publication and grant writing skills.

Research Group

Ultrasound Education Group



Faculty Research Themes

Neuroscience

School Research Themes

Neuroscience & Psychiatry, Cardiometabolic , Critical Care



Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact the research group leader.

Department / Centre

Surgery

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