Advanced skills for the Senior Healthcare Professional: a high-level complementary training model applied to vascular echography.

Abstract

Introduction

Currently, vascular ultrasound investigations are mainly carried out by a small number of medical personnel: the training of a dedicated technical-specialist professional figure (Sonographer) can help optimize the times of use of the equipment, increase the number of ultrasonographic diagnostic procedures, and significantly reduce waiting lists.

Starting from these considerations, the Italian legislator has started a process of legislative initiatives, aimed at further qualifying and enriching the skills of the health professions of nursing, midwifery, health technicians, rehabilitation, and prevention, reduce waiting lists in every sector of clinical practice and meet the citizen’s health needs.

Consistent with this aim, paragraph 566 of the 2015 Stability Law delegated to the Government and the Regions, after consultation with the scientific, professional, and trade union representatives of the health profiles concerned, the definition of roles, skills, professional relations, and individual and team responsibilities on tasks, functions and objectives to be assigned to the health professions involved.

Materials and Methods

For the establishment of a Higher Education Course for the acquisition of advanced skills, e.g. in "Health Professional Expert in Vascular Ultrasound", it is necessary to identify common criteria for the recognition of the equivalence of complementary regional training courses: the common reference consists of a list with a brief description of approximately 90 university master's degrees, approved by the Profession Observatory Healthcare of the Italian Ministry of Education (MIUR); among the specialized university Masters listed for the acquisition of advanced skills in the "core" clinical-care practice, there is the interprofessional one called "Cardiovascular ultrasound techniques" aimed at radiologist technician-radiographers, cardiocirculatory pathophysiology technicians and neurophysiopathology technician.

Results

With this study, an operational path is proposed for the creation of the advanced training course for the acquisition of advanced skills for the "Health Professional Expert in Vascular Ultrasound" which has as its reference the Document approved by the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces on February 20^th, 2020.

Conclusions

The curricular project of the advanced training course in "Health Professional Expert in Vascular Ultrasound" must take into account the concept of advanced practice and advanced competence which consists in the acquisition and implementation of specialist practices in specific professional sectors and dedicated training courses. The proposed advanced training course aims to acquire advanced skills for conducting vascular echo-color-Doppler echography investigations, as an extension of and in addition to traditional diagnostic techniques, independently, on medical prescription, with predefined operating methods based on company/national/international protocols and guidelines, in compliance with quality standards.