Analyzing Use of Ultrasound in Teaching Medical Students

¶ … Ultrasound in Teaching Medical Students

During medical courses, teaching of anatomy and physiology largely depends on lectures, course books and the dissection of corpses. Ultrasonography is more often than not used in clinical practice and an accumulating number of doctors are taught on its daily use. Contemporary ultrasound machines are less burdensome and more user friendly in comparison to older ones. The main goal of the study encompassed evaluating the viability of conveying an ultrasound-based course to undergraduates and to discover the perceptions of the students as well as those of teachers in this auspicious teaching modality (Hammoudi et al., 2013). In particular, the authors within the article undertake a feasibility analysis as to whether an ultrasound-based course can easily and effectively be incorporated into the normal medical teaching programme for the undergraduate students or not. This was done by obtaining feedback from the students as well as the teachers. It was largely purposed to increase the level of understanding and comprehension of cardiac anatomy and physiology for medical students at the undergraduate level.

The old debate as regards the approaches of learning anatomy, together with the preservation of cadaver dissection as a contemporary method, is still taking place. With the advancement of technology and introduction of computer and virtual models as well as simulation, plenty of changes have been instigated. In comparison to virtuously virtual dissection, the ultrasound method permits the efficacious visualization of huge anatomical structures, and makes it possible for medical students to handle the transducer in a manner through which they grip the scalpel and the anatomical pincers (Mircea et al., 2013). An ultrasound-based teaching course was executed and recommended to all medical students in their second year of study subsequent to all the standard units at the facility. Following a transitory theoretic and real-world demonstration, students were permitted to take the enquiry and use the ultrasound machine. Students and teachers were requested to finish a survey and were given the chance to deliver open feedback (Hammoudi et al., 2013).

The article outlines the research study that employed ultrasound in teaching undergraduate students about cardiac anatomy and physiology. Outcomes of the study have indicated that 98% of the students who participated in the research study mentioned that they relished the course and 74% of the students came to the conclusion that the course enhanced their level of understanding of cardiac physiology. However, there is less in literature regarding the use of ultrasound in teaching physiology. For instance, in a study undertaken by Brunner et al. (1995), the participating medical students conveyed that cardiac ultrasound was the most substantial and most stimulating amongst all the practical exercises undertaken in their physiology class. Therefore, limited data indicates that the perceptions and standpoints of the medical students regarding the use of ultrasound for teaching cardiac physiology are very constructive. Nevertheless, there does not seem to be any substantial or important evidence that ultrasound, in fact, enhances the knowledge of cardiac physiology.