Introduction
In 2022, the Department of Emergency Medicine partnered with the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) emergency medicine residency program to create a longitudinal ultrasound curriculum for resident training. The first draft of the curriculum was based on recommendations of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). After a review of the curriculum with the KBTH emergency medicine residents and specialists, the curriculum was updated to reflect the goals and needs of their training. This curriculum was fully implemented in May 2022. With any new curriculum, there should be a period of quality improvement to ensure the newly implemented curriculum will have the intended effects. This research project is a quality improvement analysis to assess the curriculum’s effectiveness, self-sustainability, and feasibility. There is limited literature about self-sustainable long-term ultrasound training programs for emergency residents in Ghana and similar areas. This QI project strives to bridge this gap.
Objectives
The main objective of this project is to use a survey tool to obtain feedback from current KBTH emergency medicine residents and residency leadership about the effectiveness and self-sustainability of the newly implemented curriculum. This feedback will identify the most common areas of concern and/or deficiencies of the curriculum; these will be focused on for curriculum improvement. The secondary objective is to use the PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) cycle method over the course of 6 months to 1 year, to develop and implement curriculum changes to address the deficiencies and areas of concern identified above.
Materials
The newly implemented curriculum outlines a variety of textbook and virtual training references. The training ultrasound available at the KBTH is a Mindray ultrasound with curvilinear, phased array, and linear probes. The QI study will mainly occur through virtual interaction via Zoom and Qualtrics Survey Software.
Timeline
The project is anticipated to take 1 year. Currently, the project is pending UF and international IRB approval through the KBTH. Upon approval, the QI project will begin. After the completion of the project, it is hoped that there will be a foundational longitudinal ultrasound curriculum for the KBTH emergency medicine residency to continue to use well beyond the dates of this project.
Partners
The partners for this study include the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Accident & Emergency Department.
