Evaluating Bedside Lung Ultrasound Examination (BLUE Protocol) Training and Learning among Emergency Medicine Residents of Iran University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Introduction: Research conducted in the department of emergency over the past years has shown that ultrasound in the patient's bedside can improve care in the hospital's department of emergency. The purpose of this study was to examine the learning of the BLUE protocol in the emergency medicine resident.Material & Methods: This study was designed as a qualitative study of pretest and posttest type that was conducted on emergency medical assistants who were employed in teaching hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences. In this study, sampling was done as a whole. In this study, patients' data was collected through pre-designed questionnaires. Then, after teaching the theory and practice of sonography by faculty of emergency medicine, the learning curve of ultra-sonographies performed by the assistants were studied separately until they reached the full competencies and confirmed by the corresponding professor.Results: In this study, a total of 85 emergency medical assistants were evaluated in terms of education and chest sonography (blue protocol) learning. The agreement between the performance of each assistant and the corresponding teacher was evaluated in 23 consecutive steps for assessing Lung sliding, determining the lung profile, and also identifying the B lines, and eventually identifying the complication in 747 patients with a mean age of 48.2 ± 6.1 which required pulmonary examination. The agreement rate increased by 0.09, 0.43, 0.08, and 0.371 respectively. There was a significant difference in the statistical analysis of the mean changes in the blue protocol. In the study of changes in the mean of the agreement coefficients, we reduced these changes and the average of the total coefficients of the agreement was increasing the convergence coefficient.Conclusion: The course of lung ultrasonography in the patient's bedside, according to the BLUE protocol, in the emergency medicine resident shows that during the training, the experience of the assistants has been increased and the professors are close to recognizing the BLUE protocol profiles.