Nursing has been a booming profession of the future for quite some time, and we see no slowing down in its growth. This specialized field requires not only a highly refined skill set bolstered by quality education but also a level of empathy and compassion that allows patients to feel cared for and safe in the hands of their medical staff. Nurses serve on the frontlines of delivering excellent patient care, acting as the bridge connecting patients to their doctors. Behind every great doctor, you can bet there is a great nurse.

Doctors are the leaders who provide the vision for a patient’s care plan. Nurses carry out that vision to return a patient to optimum health. It is in this symbiotic relationship, where both nurses and doctors work together to deliver the highest quality care effectively and efficiently.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is the advanced technology that can take nursing to the next level. There are many different roles that nurses take on in their professions — from performing physical duties like checking vital signs and drawing blood to keeping a detailed record of a patient’s medical history and even giving emotional support and advice. Nurses can do it all! With the right training, POCUS can assist in providing nurses with additional skills in their repertoire of services.

As medical care providers, nurses are always interested in continuing their education and staying up-to-date on all the latest technology available to improve healthcare. In a study conducted by the Italian Journal of Emergency Medicine, participating nurses gave “POCUS global usefulness…a score of 9 out of 10,” with 98% viewing it as a beneficial tool for peripheral vascular access. Nearly 95% of them also felt that including POCUS training in a nursing school curriculum would be valuable.

The POCUS Certification Academy™ encourages any nurse that is considering incorporating POCUS in the care they provide, first to seek out proper certification founded on high standards of learning. That is why we do our best to offer precisely that — POCUS training courses backed by scholarly research and qualified experts in our fields of medicine.

Just as doctors face adversity in their medical professions, nurses share in these hurdles. The issues that nurses often have to deal with include burnout, workplace safety, nursing shortages, increased workload, and oppressive administration and EHR responsibilities. It is in the face of these challenges that the duty of providing exceptional health care can get bogged down.

POCUS is a tool that can come to the rescue, aiding in making a nurse’s job a little easier and streamlined. Through its ability to view the inside of the human anatomy, it can provide answers promptly, eliminating some of the back and forth of going between specialists. POCUS can also assist with increased workload and feeling overwhelmed by administrative responsibilities. Many of the POCUS manufacturers are taking the initiative to develop software to pair with this device. These solutions will allow nurses to directly upload images and notes to the EHR systems currently in place.

A goal of POCUS is to simplify how we provide answers to our patients and reduce the time it takes to arrive at those answers. Nurses are a significant segment of the medical service process. This explosion of new technology has paved the way for POCUS to have a spot at the frontlines of healthcare, alongside the nurses facilitating patient care. It only makes sense that nurses integrate POCUS into their daily practice. Implementing this device will aid in boosting a nurse’s skillset, helping them to enhance the service provided at the forefront of healthcare.

Learn more about POCUS education and training and how it may benefit you.

Looking for additional inspiration? Sign up for our POCUS Post™ newsletter to receive monthly tips and ideas.