Medical education for emergency physician focused on basic competence (Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma). Evaluation of the Romanian national program: "Regional Emergency Medical Services Systems".

UNLABELLED Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (FAST), a type of training for unique ultrasonography competence, represents a necessity in the emergency assistance of the trauma patient. The principal OBJECTIVE of this prospective study was to evaluate the teaching performance and to identify the training necessities related to the curriculum of the unique ultrasonography competence--FAST--used in the frame of the national program of rehabilitation of the emergency system in Romania. MATERIAL AND METHOD The study was performed on a number of 164 emergency medicine physicians, trained following a unique theoretical and practical curriculum, between April and December 2006 in 4 Romanian university centers. RESULTS The assessment of the theoretical knowledge acquired during the training program revealed a significant (p<0.0001) improvement. The comparative analysis of the theoretical evaluation results between the center in Cluj and the other three training centers did not show statistically significant differences. The differences were noticed at the level of the practical evaluation (p<0.005). The attendees observed the need for supplementing the practical activities in trauma emergency situations (57.38% -72.08%). CONCLUSIONS The implementation of a national training program, with a unitary curriculum, creates premises for a standardized training process. The first national training program in FAST, a unique competence in emergency ultrasonography, identified the necessity for curricular remodeling.