Perspectives Winter/Spring 2018

Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences 49 During the course’s culmination, students also orga- nized a Shark SonoSLAM in which students formed teams and signed up to compete against each other in a three-round ultrasound competition. Class of 2019 students volunteered as practice patients, while Krackov and faculty members judged the students in various categories, ranging from transducer technique and reading scans appropriately to navigating through specific scans to identify disease or injury. “SonoSLAM was a lot of fun, and I feel like it helped solidify some of the topics we learned in our POCUS training,” said second-year student Cristian Gallo. “In my opinion, it was the best way to test our knowledge of the material.” To examine the effectiveness of the POCUS curricu- lum, students were given pre- and post-surveys to test their ultrasound knowledge and abilities. “Post-course assessment data revealed significant student improvement in technical ultrasound skills and image interpretation,” said Krackov about the preliminary survey results. Class of 2018 students plan to continue being proponents of POCUS education and usage in their practices. A group of students has begun consulting with other campus PA programs to help them organize similar ultrasound interest groups. Additionally, three students from the class of 2018 plan to attempt to be the first PA team to enter the next annual American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine national SonoSLAM—a competition that is historically only between teams of students from medical doctoral programs. ● Second-year PA students, from left, Matthew Hendricks, Arjun Dhingra, Cristian Gallo, Zachary Demetriou, Ryan Hoeksema, and Matthew McLaughlin practice the deep venous thrombosis ultrasound assessment. From left, Miranda Ghali (class of 2018), Ruben Morillo (class of 2019, on table), and second-year students Christina Woolford, Claire Kipp, and Kristin McKenzie compete in the Shark SonoSLAM. From left: Second-year PA students Stepfani Tagupa, Leann Whitt, Kathryn Hankins, Aubrie Hodges, Megan Thompson, and Vanessa Hernandez practice ultrasound of the abdominal aorta.