Philip Lawrenson

Abstract

The use of point of care ultrasound (POCU) is increasing across a number of specialties, becoming mandatory within some specialist training programmes (for example respiratory and emergency medicine). Despite this, there are few data looking at the prevalence of use or the training clinicians have undertaken; this survey sought to address this. It shows that the majority of POCU undertaken on the Acute Medical Unit (AMU) is without formal accreditation, with significant barriers to training highlighted including a lack of supervision, time and equipment. For those who undertook POCU, it was shown to regularly speed up clinical decision making, while 76.3% respondents believed a lack of access to POCU out of hours may affect patient safety. The data provide support to the concept of developing AMU specific POCU accreditation, to ensure robust and safe use of this modality on the AMU.