Introduction: Ultrasound is the most commonly used medical imaging technique. Ultrasound examinations in Slovenia are currently being carried out by doctors. Due to the increasing number of patients, in some countries, radiologic technologists have begun to perform ultrasound examinations. It is our wish that in the future, as in some foreign healthcare facilities, some ultrasound examinations will also be performed by radiologic technologists, thereby helping to shorten queues while expanding the competencies of our profession. To this end, we took the first step in January 2019 and organised a pilot ultrasound course at the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Health Sciences, which we named »1st school of ultrasound«. Purpose: The purpose is to analyse and compare educational programs in the field of ultrasound diagnostics, intended for the education of radiologic technologists, and on that basis to create a curriculum for the implementation of ultrasound course as a subject at the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Health Sciences. In addition, we conducted a pilot ultrasound course »1st school of ultrasound« and compared it with the educational programs mentioned above. Based on the results of the assessment of the participants in the pilot course, we conducted an analysis of the acquired competences. Methods: The master's thesis is based on a descriptive method with the review and study of domestic and foreign professional literature. By qualitative comparison, we compared several ultrasound training programs aimed at radiologic technologists. After completing the pilot ultrasound course, which was carried out at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Ljubljana, we quantitatively analysed the effectiveness of education and compared the level of competence achieved by students of radiologic technology and midwifery students. Results: The ultrasound training programs of the selected European educational institutions are broadly similar to one another, but differ in many details. Pilot education training program »1st school of ultrasound« is comparable in substance to the aforementioned European programs, but there are differences as the pilot program is not so extensive. The analysis of the results of the knowledge assessment after the completion of the pilot education shows that the students of radiologic technology were more successful than the students of midwifery. Discussion and conclusion: We find that the selected European ultrasound training programs are similar in many items and that it is reasonable to design an educational program based on them that could be used for ultrasound training of radiologic technologists in Slovenia. After analysing the results of the examination of acquired competences, we found that it is reasonable to continue the pilot training program in the future and to extend it to a subject that would be carried out by the Department of radiologic technology at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Ljubljana.
|