It is no secret that the medical world loves to use acronyms. Our team at Maverick Medical Education is no different. POCUS, or Point of Care Ultrasound, is one that we find ourselves using a lot, because we teach it and believe that it is a game changer in regard to providing medical care in and outside of hospitals everywhere. While ultrasound is most commonly thought of in use with obstetrics, the applications are endless, beyond even what our course teaches.
What is POCUS?
POCUS, or Point of Care Ultrasound, uses this nimble technology wherever patients may be located. When using ultrasound, high-frequency sound waves are emitted into the body by a transducer to detect structures within the patient. The transducer can detect those waves when they bounce back and, using precise calculations, create images by the boundaries detected. Ultrasound is non-invasive and usually painless. Some patients may experience slight discomfort when the transducer passes over certain parts of their body or depending on the degree the measurements need to be taken. POCUS uses this imaging technology at bedsides throughout hospital and medical office settings to get immediate feedback on the patient. POCUS can be cleaned quickly and can be used to gain insight throughout medical treatment without moving the patient to a larger facility for X-rays or other imaging.
What are the applications?
POCUS has a number of applications, both inside and outside the hospital. Emergency rooms have applied POCUS in a number of ways, more recently to provide imaging for cardiovascular systems in patients presenting with severe COVID-19 symptoms. Many of our own Maverick Medical Education students use POCUS when giving nerve blocks and other methods of pain relief to ensure proper placement of the needle during these procedures. Trauma and surgical centers can use POCUS to assess patients who may have internal bleeding or need monitoring after medical examination. Outside of the hospital setting, paramedics are becoming more proficient on the use of POCUS in the field as are medical teams on the frontlines of war or other trauma inducing catastrophes.
How do we teach POCUS?
With all of our courses, there are pre-learning modules that must be completed ahead of time. These modules provide valuable content that is accessible from any internet connected device. Once completed, students will attend a proficiency lab where they will perform scans on live models to make diagnoses and to gain insight from our Maverick instructors. As all of the classroom learning is done ahead of time in our online modules, the lab will focus on learning the nuances of this technology and provide the repetition each student needs to be ready to apply their learning upon arriving back to their workplace.
If you believe your health setting will benefit from POCUS, contact us today. Maverick Medical Education firmly believes that there is application and use for those trained in POCUS in every medical field. With this training you will be able to provide quicker diagnoses, more accurate diagnoses, and better outcomes.
