Education Indicators for Internal Medicine Point-of-Care Ultrasound: a Consensus Report from the Canadian Internal Medicine Ultrasound (CIMUS) Group

BackgroundCurriculum development and implementation for internal medicine point-of-care ultrasound (IM POCUS) continues to be a challenge for many residency training programs. Education indicators may provide a useful framework to support curriculum development and implementation efforts across programs in order to achieve a consistent high-quality educational experience.ObjectiveThis study seeks to establish consensus-based recommendations for education indicators for IM POCUS training programs in Canada.DesignThis consensus study uses a modified nominal group technique for voting in the initial round, followed by two additional rounds of online voting, with consensus defined as agreement by at least 80% of the participants.ParticipantsParticipants were 22 leaders with POCUS and/or education expertise from 13 Canadian internal medicine residency programs across 7 provinces.Main MeasuresEducation indicators considered were those that related to aspects of the POCUS educational system, could be presented by a single statistical measure, were readily understood, could be reliably measured to provide a benchmark for measuring change, and represented a policy issue. We excluded a priori indicators with low feasibility, are impractical, or assess learner reactions. Candidate indicators were drafted by two academic internists with post-graduate training in POCUS and medical education. These indicators were reviewed by two internists with training in quality improvement prior to presentation to the expert participants.Key ResultsOf the 52 candidate education indicators considered, 6 reached consensus in the first round, 12 in the second, and 4 in the third round. Only 5 indicators reached consensus to be excluded; the remaining indicators did not reach consensus.ConclusionsThe Canadian Internal Medicine Ultrasound (CIMUS) group recommends 22 education indicators be used to guide and monitor internal medicine POCUS curriculum development efforts in Canada.