The Canada Health Act introduced recently presents the accessibility clause that implies the improvement of care services for all Canadians. In spite of the above regulations, still much is to be done to provide patients with high-quality care, especially in rural areas when it comes to point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS). The study of Micks, Sue, and Rogers (2016) explored barriers to PoCUS, which include poor staff training, insufficient funding, and maintenance of skills to offer the best care possible. Moshynskyy et al. (2017) also discovered that ultrasound quality in rural Saskatchewan needs to be enhanced since the current quality assurance and training were noted by the study participants as difficult to accomplish. In their turn, Atkinson, Olszynski, Chenkin, Kim, and Hall (2018) argued that PoCUS use is one of the core competencies of an emergency department care providers. In this connection, it becomes evident that there is an urgent need to improve the existing situation.
The main concern associated with the identified health problem is how to eliminate the mentioned barriers and what the strategies and tools to be implemented are. Fleet et al. (2017) offered the mobilization of patients, healthcare professionals, and decision-makers to find a common solution. In addition, one more decision that may be taken into account is suggested by Besserer, Hogan, Oliver, and Froh (2016), who focus on the mobile training for emergency departments. Thus, specific measures should be developed and introduced to ensure quality and safety of emergency care through improving PoCUS use, while the required strategies remain unidentified.
Probing questions:
- How can nurses of Canada improve the quality and accessibility of PoCUS services in rural Saskatchewan?
- How can caregivers contribute to change in PoCUS and achievement of better patient diagnostics by means of this instrument?
References
Atkinson, P., Olszynski, P., Chenkin, J., Kim, D. J., & Hall, G. (2018). CJEM Debate Series:# PoCUS–All physicians practicing emergency medicine should be competent in the use of point-of-care ultrasound. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(3), 329-333. Web.
Besserer, F., Hogan, M., Oliver, T., & Froh, J. (2016). LO094: Mass casualty incident training for rural Canadian municipalities: A mobile education unit initiative. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 18(1), 62-63. Web.
Fleet, R., Dupuis, G., Fortin, J. P., Gravel, J., Ouimet, M., Poitras, J., & Légaré, F. (2017). Rural emergency care 360°: Mobilising healthcare professionals, decision-makers, patients and citizens to improve rural emergency care in the province of Quebec, Canada: A qualitative study protocol. BMJ Open, 7(8), 1-6. Web.
Micks, T., Sue, K., & Rogers, P. (2016). Barriers to point-of-care ultrasound use in rural emergency departments. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 18(6), 475-479. Web.
Moshynskyy, A. I., Kapusta, M., McGonigle, R., Miller, L., O’Brien, J. M., Thoma, B.,… Olszynski, P. (2017). P093: Sound check: Quality in point of care ultrasound in rural and regional Saskatchewan through participatory action research. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 19(1), 109-110. Web.