Exploring the views of Point of Care Ultrasound practitioners for widespread implementation in community settings in the UK

Exploring the views of Point of Care Ultrasound practitioners for widespread implementation in community settings in the UK The problem: Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) is a currently available and rapidly developing technology but still not widely used in the UK. Community POCUS in prehospital and primary care settings could help to prioritise initial treatment, procedures and appropriate patient referral or conveyance to an appropriate secondary care setting. Recent reviews suggest that image quality, portability and cost of ultrasound devices are improving, that POCUS is increasingly being used by general practitioners and emergency practitioners across the world, and that generalists can safely use ultrasound in a range of clinical settings to aid diagnosis. As further evidence of community POCUS use and impact is needed in the UK, we aimed to explore the views of practitioners who use ultrasound in practice on the role of POCUS and perceived barriers and facilitators for implementation in UK community settings. The approach: We conducted a qualitative interview study with practitioners who use point of care ultrasound in practice. Participants were from community and secondary care settings, and interviews were conducted online via Microsoft Teams. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit eligible participants through an inclusion criterion. Following ethics approval, participants were recruited by using a flyer advertising the study on social media (Twitter) and websites of relevant research groups. This was enhanced by a snowballing technique, with participants already identified serving as key informants to recruit further eligible and willing participants to the study. Data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews lasting 40 – 60 minutes. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a Framework approach assisted by NVivo 12 software. Findings: In total, 16 practitioners, aged between 40 and 62, with a range o