POCUS Certificate of Completion

The SHM | Chest Point-of-Care Ultrasound Certificate of Completion program is designed for all healthcare providers interested in improving their bedside ultrasound skills. The program is geared primarily toward providers that care for acutely ill patients, including hospitalists, internal medicine or family medicine physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.

For more information, contact SHM.

If your goal is to obtain the SHM| CHEST Point-of-Care Ultrasound Certificate of Completion, then you should attend the courses listed above. These courses are taught by experienced SHM and Chest point-of-care ultrasound faculty and have undergone a detailed review of their curricular components, hands-on training experience, course evaluations, and faculty before inclusion in the COC program. Some learners may receive credit for courses previously attended (see “Is there an alternative pathway?” below), but we strongly discourage learners from actively registering for courses that are not listed above if their goal is to complete the COC.

Starting in January 2022, in lieu of Requirement 2 only, CME certificates from other live or virtual POCUS CME courses may be accepted if the CME course included:

1. Mentored hands-on scanning practice with live models with a 3:1 or 2:1 (learner:faculty) ratio
2. ≥24 hours AMA PRA category 1 CME Credit
3. Teaching multi-system POCUS applications (heart, lungs, abdomen, vasculature)

Only credit from accredited CME courses will be accepted, and a copy of an official CME certificate must be provided to receive credit. We cannot accept letters or emails from course directors, invoices or registration receipts, copies of the agenda, etc..

To fulfill the live or virtual POCUS CME course requirement for the COC program, participants must attend different POCUS courses on different dates. The same POCUS course cannot be counted multiple times (or taken back-to-back) to fulfill the alternative or traditional pathway requirements. Similarly, for the alternative pathway, the same POCUS cannot be counted twice as the approved regional course (Requirement 3).

If you are an active POCUS user, have completed ≥24 hours of live POCUS CME, and would like to apply for the alternative pathway, please fill out this form. Please send inquiries to POCUS@hospitalmedicine.org

Cardiac Images (20 studies with the following views per study)

1. Parasternal long-axis view
2. Parasternal short-axis view at the mid-ventricle/papillary level
3. Apical four-chamber view
4. Subcostal 4-chamber view
5. Inferior vena cava longitudinal view

Lung & Pleural Images (5 studies with the following image views per study)

1. Normal sliding with A-lines
2. Consolidation (with high suspicion for pneumonia)
3. Pleural effusion
4. B-lines (minimum of 1 B-line)

Abdominal Images (5 studies with the following image views per study)

1. Right kidney longitudinal view with hepatorenal recess
2. Left kidney longitudinal view with splenorenal space
3. Abdominal aorta transverse view
4. Abdominal aorta longitudinal view
5. Bladder transverse view
6. Bladder longitudinal view
7. Ascites in right or left lower quadrant

Lower extremity DVT Images (5 studies with the following views per study)
All images should be acquired in a transverse orientation and demonstrate compression at each level.

1. Right common femoral vein
2. Right common femoral vein – Greater saphenous vein junction
3. Right femoral vein (superficial) – Deep femoral vein junction
4. Right mid-/distal femoral vein (superficial)
5. Right popliteal vein
6. Left common femoral vein
7. Left common femoral vein – Greater saphenous vein junction
8. Left femoral vein (superficial) – Deep femoral vein junction
9. Left mid-/distal femoral vein (superficial)
10. Left popliteal vein

Skin & Soft Tissue Images (3 studies with the following image views per study)

1. Normal skin and subcutaneous tissue (thigh or abdominal wall)
2. Subcutaneous edema ("cobblestoning")

To begin the program, participants must complete a program requirement (i.e., the online modules or an in-person course). Once the first requirement is completed, participants should enroll in the POCUS COC Self-Management page and upload their certificate. As participants complete the rest of the program’s requirements they should upload all certificates to this page for them to be marked complete.