The Fellowship year is broken down into three macro-blocks, which include physics and instrumentation, cardiac and critical care, and abdominal and pelvic ultrasound. Each of the macro-blocks has a monthly focus on lectures, simulation and scanning sessions.
Each month also has a symposium topic that allows us the flexibility to branch out into more specialized applications in a one-day symposium-style format to maintain excitement and broaden the fellow's skill set with cutting-edge ultrasound applications. Each month is further subdivided into weekly educational sessions, simulation sessions, clinical shifts and scanning shifts. There is a global skills assessment on the first day of fellowship, as well as an interim mid-year and final end-of-year evaluation.
Graduation requirements
The following requirements assist us in meeting our mission of training clinically excellent Emergency Medicine ultrasonographers with teaching and research skills. Graduates must:
- Perform a minimum of 800 ultrasound examinations during the fellowship year.
- Sit for the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (ARDMS) examinations for Physics and Abdominal Imaging to obtain the Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS) credential.
- Fellows have the option to sit for the exams for Registered Vascular Technician (RVT) or Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer (RDCS) credentials.
- Design at least one research project to be submitted to the Institutional Review Board and begin data collection during the year.
- Submit at least one abstract with the fellow’s name as first or second author and presented at a national meeting sponsored by ACEP, SAEM or AIUM.
- Fellows should also be involved in at least one additional research project for which publication is planned with the fellow as a co-author.
- Deliver at least three separate lectures over the year on emergency ultrasound at weekly conference.
- Demonstrates at least 20 hours per month of hands-on teaching and QA of residents and/or other faculty in bedside emergency ultrasound at all hospital sites covered by our faculty.
- Successfully obtain a Designation of Focused Practice in Ultrasound through the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM).
Rotations
Fellows train at a variety of sites, where they learn all aspects of ultrasound.
- Fellows are able to perform endovaginal ultrasound, linear ultrasound, cardiac and abdominal ultrasound applications with high quality. At least three ultrasound transducers (probe) types are available at all times: linear, endovaginal/endocavity and either curved linear for abdomen or a separate phased array cardiac probe that can be used for both abdominal and cardiac.
- Emergency physicians complete diagnostic reports that appear as part of the patient medical record.
- Quality assurance review of all ultrasound examinations performed by fellows will be documented.
- The fellowship's director maintains a quality assurance log of all ultrasound examinations performed in the ED.
- Video (dynamic media) quality assurance is used for all ultrasound examinations utilized for teaching of fellows.
- The type of emergency ultrasound examinations performed at the primary fellowship site include, but are not limited to: renal; biliary; acute abdominal aneurysm; pelvic (endovaginal); cardiac; trauma/FAST; vascular access; superficial/soft tissue; and lower extremity to rule out deep vein thrombosis.
- The fellowship director teaches all emergency ultrasound applications. Fellows can specialize in ultrasound areas, including Radiology and Vascular departments. These specialties can account for up to 10% of the total minimum ultrasound examinations required prior to graduation.
- Fellows maintain their EM clinical skills by working a total of 1,000 hours in the ED during the year as an attending physician; the remainder of the time is reserved for academic/research work.
- Fellows will be full-time employees of our private practice group, Emergency Physicians of Tidewater (EPT). The fellowship will be 12 consecutive months.
- Fellows will be scheduled for five scanning shift equivalents per month. A scanning shift is a shift where a fellow is not working clinically, but spends time directly with the Fellowship Director, Associate Director or Assistant Director scanning patients in the ED.
