The Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Certification AcademyTM exists to provide healthcare practitioners the opportunity to participate in its mission of ensuring the highest POCUS standards in global healthcare and patient safety. This drive to see healthcare around the world develop in ways unimaginable, via the standardized training and education of POCUS, is the very reason for the organization’s existence.
But what does this look like in action? How does one rally a community around this central cause? The POCUS Certification Academy has developed a vast number of strategies and initiatives to bring its mission to life. However, there is one program that sets the vision running full-fledged. The bridging of the medical community has evolved tremendously through MissionPOCUS.
MissionPOCUS: Advancing POCUS Application Where it Matters Most
The annual initiative to expand POCUS’s reach to under-resourced and underserved areas around the world began in 2018. Yearly, the POCUS Certification Academy’s team partners with other healthcare providers and/or organizations in locations that exhibit a need for POCUS technology, education, training, and certification. Connecting these providers and organizations to resources that render support through financial and in-kind donations is also an arm of MissionPOCUS.
In just under two years, MissionPOCUS has become the organization’s movement. It is the POCUS Certification Academy’s hands and feet on the ground approach to see every corner of the globe experience leading healthcare. The accomplishments and impacts to date are certainly a tell-tale sign that the intent and purpose of MissionPOCUS is well underway. In 2019 alone, this initiative was able to make waves and create a tsunami of care.
2019 Mission Accomplishments
MissionPOCUS ensured that the organization’s promise to create collaborative opportunities to participate in its mission was felt and not just heard. Every touchpoint and every action resulted in a vaster reaction—connecting like-minded, mission-driven individuals. Those who wanted involvement in mission work for the greater good of the medical community were connected through MissionPOCUS, pulling their effects together and accomplishing legendary change.
1) MissionPOCUS NYAGI
Through MissionPOUCS, the POCUS Certification Academy partnered with Now You Are the Group’s Interest (NYAGI), a nonprofit organization working tirelessly to see every pregnant woman, across the globe, have access to proficient life-saving ultrasound diagnostics. Their goal is to eradicate maternal death in low resource regions of the world.
Thorough POCUS training of healthcare providers in these parts of the world is an essential approach NYAGI embodies. Their team of sonographers hosts seven days of intensive hands-on training utilizing an iPad-based software. MissionPOCUS was able to donate 10 Apple iPads for the administration of the program in Nepal.
The intent of the NYAGI’s education program isn’t just to come into remote areas, provide a few instructional moments, and leave. NYAGI seeks to empower the health community in these parts of the world with skills they can grow and perfect for a lifetime. One method of doing so is in creating assessment tools that aid in progressing a global community of ultrasound excellence.
The POCUS Certification Academy’s team has had the great pleasure of engaging in this effort, to include developing and translating POCUS assessments into French to measure the proficiency of the trained clinicians in Haiti.
2) POCUS Fest
In furthering the organization’s mission, the POCUS Certification Academy also believes in providing opportunities dedicated to students of POCUS. This is to ensure that future medical professionals are well-equipped and prepared to deliver optimal patient care with this innovative device. This notion gave way to the evolution of POCUS Fest.
POCUS Fest physically transports the mission. The organization rallies partners, volunteers, and staff at various medical schools and universities for a hands-on experience. Right there on the grounds of the campus, the training begins. In 2019, over 260 students, throughout three different universities, came together to practice the art of POCUS.
3) Making the Connections
MissionPOCUS has been a vehicle for bringing people and organizations together. The expansion of networks not only entails connecting mission-ready professionals but creates a bridge between need and means. Through this initiative, resources, education, and technology have been delivered directly to where there is lack.
Last year, Rush University in Chicago assembled a student run ultrasound club. The club was established to enhance the ultrasound education of its program and furnish students with extra practice during their clinical rotation years. The goal is not just to provide education on the use of ultrasound, but give the students hands-on experience so that when they enter the workforce, they are prepared to use ultrasound to the best of their abilities.
This desire was met with a challenge, however. The university did not have the ultrasound equipment or resources required to carry out the request adequately. The POCUS Certification Academy was able to leverage its relationship with manufacturers of the modality and help the school find support. This introduction resulted in SonoSite, an ultrasound device manufacturer donating the equipment needed to make the desire an actuality.
From preparing the next generation of medical practitioners for the innovations that are happening and will happen, to empowering and equipping today’s healthcare community with live-saving knowledge, there’s no telling what MissionPOCUS will do next. Stay tuned to see what follows or join us in the quest by visiting the MissionPOCUS page and share opportunities of how the POCUS Certification Academy can help ensure equitable healthcare globally.
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