Barriers and Facilitators to Point-of-Care Ultrasound Utilization Among Emergency Medicine Residents and Emergency Nurse Practitioners Following Institutional Training

Purpose

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) serves as a critical diagnostic tool in emergency medicine; however, a persistent gap remains between competency acquired during training and consistent clinical application. This study sought to identify barriers and facilitators influencing POCUS examination frequency among emergency medicine (EM) residents and emergency nurse practitioners after institutional training, and to examine the association between individual-level factors and the frequency of POCUS examinations. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, Thailand, from January 2024 to December 2025. Cohort 1 included 76 providers (16 EM residents and 60 nurse practitioners) who completed institutional POCUS training between January 2024 and December 2025. Data collected included provider characteristics, competency scores, workload, and responses to a 5-point Likert-scale survey assessing perceived barriers and facilitators. Cohort 2 consisted of 2,097 documented, archived POCUS examinations performed by these providers during a standardized 1-month post-training observation period per provider. Associations were evaluated using correlation coefficients and multivariable linear regression.