Three different ways of training ultrasound student-tutors yield significant gains in tutee’s scanning-skills

Aim: Many medical universities rely these days on trained student tutors to enable faculty-wide undergraduate ultrasound training. However, there is neither consensus on an optimal method nor any developed and agreed standard in the training of these student tutors. Usually internships and courses are employed which have both a specific set of advantages and disadvantages. We conducted a prospective quasi-randomized study of assess the effects of three types of tutor training on the resulting improvement in scanning skills of their tutees. Methods: Three batches of student tutors were trained by a course only (C-group), by an internship only (I-group) or by a course and an internship (CI-group). The respective gains in ultrasound scanning skills of the tutees were measured prospectively. A total 75 of the 124 5(th) year medical students (60.5%) who attended the mandatory ultrasound course completed both pre- and post-exams on a voluntary basis. Within a limit of eight minutes and three images, they were asked to depict and label a maximum of 14 anatomical structures. Two blinded raters independently awarded two points for each label with an identifiable structure and one point for each label with a possibly identifiable structure. Results: In all three groups, the tutees improved significantly by more than doubling their pre-score results and comparably (Gains: C-group 9.19±5.73 points, p<.0001, I-group 9.77±4.81 points, p<.0001, CI-group 8.97±5.49 points, p<.0001). Conclusion: Student tutors, who were trained with a course or an internship or a course and an internship could teach scanning skills to 5th year medical students very effectively and with similar success.