Providing Transthoracic Echocardiography Training for Intensive Care Unit Trainees: An Educational Improvement Initiative

Objective: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is important in the management of critically ill patients, yet it has not been incorporated into many residency programs' curricula. Our objective is to determine if trainees undergoing a 60-minute training session on TTE have improved knowledge, ultrasound skills, and increases the utilization of TTE during their rotation in the intensive care unit (ICU). We will also compare the results of participants with prior TTE exposure to TTE-naïve trainees. Our hypothesis is that after the training, participants' will have improved knowledge and ultrasound skills compared to before training. Our secondary hypotheses are that TTE-naïve trainees will have greater improvements in knowledge scores compared to those who have had prior TTE experience and trainees will increase their use of TTE in the ICU.

Design: Single-center, prospective trial.

Setting: Brigham and Women's Hospital (academic hospital).

Participants: Residents and fellows rotating through the ICU, at any level of postgraduate training.

Results: Forty-two trainees participated in the study. Statistically significant improvement after training was observed for all multiple choice questions (MCQ) and practical assessments (p < 0.001). When assessing the differences in score improvement between TTE-experienced versus TTE-naïve users, mean score improvements were notably higher for TTE-naïve participants (MCQ: 28.2 ± 11.6; echo clinical: 48.6 ± 23.4) compared to TTE-experienced users (MCQ: 18.6 ± 13.5, p = 0.01; echo clinical: 38.3 ± 30.2, p = 0.04).

Conclusions: A short didactic presentation on TTE use may be useful in teaching ICU trainees basic TTE skills and encouraging the use of bedside TTE in the ICU.