Health Watch: Program expands health worker training on ultrasound

WCAX

Ultrasounds can be an important tool to address a variety of patients’ needs. But not all hospital employees are trained to use them. Now, officials at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury are working to address that gap in care.

Jade Kaplan has been a midwife at NVRH for about seven years. Within that time, she says the hospital has been developing so-called point-of-care ultrasound, or POCUS.

“I came to NVRH already trained in amniotic fluid index and biophysical profile testing. But I didn’t have the capabilities of first-trimester ultrasound when I first started working here,” Kaplan said.

The advent of smaller, more portable machines in recent years gives health care providers, including midwives, the ability to take ultrasounds without patients having to wait for an appointment when something is wrong.

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