Delivery of POCUS 5.0 Part 1 with a full team of Ghanaian trainers

In a milestone for the sustainability of the Ghana POCUS training programme, Part 1 of the 2025 course has been delivered by a full trainer team of Ghanaian POCUS alumni, without the need for international trainers.

The training took place at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho, Ghana from 23-27 June 2025, where three experienced trainers, three trainee trainers and five new participants worked hard over a 1 week programme to learn and develop their POCUS skills.

The one-week hands-on programme involved in-person lectures and case presentations on a range of POCUS topics, hands-on scanning practice of healthy volunteers to demonstrate these topics practically and also hand-on scanning practice on patients in the wards at UHAS.

The POCUS 2025 programme is a continuation of our existing course programme but with a smaller cohort than our previous years, as this year has a focus on training new trainers from course alumni.

Our training model has the course participants complete an 8-month hybrid course consisting of both online and hands-on training, with remote expert supervision throughout. The training is split into Part 1 and Part 2, with online and hands-on training in both.

Our train-the-trainer programme runs alongside the POCUS course, with trainee-trainers shadowing experienced trainers, completing mentoring sessions and being moderated to independently assess participants.

Prior to attending this in-person Part 1 session in June 2025, the five participants completed online modules and assessments to support their learning ahead of the hands-on training. Upon arrival in Ho, they met the trainers face-to-face and were able to practice and hone their ultrasound skills under expert supervision. The participants have now returned to their places of work, where they will continue to practice these skills independently with remote supervision from our trainers.

During this supervision period they will remotely present interesting cases and also develop an in-depth case presentation that will be assessed as part of the course requirements. They will then complete another set of online modules and assessments, before returning to Ho for an 8-day in-person session, culminating in a final assessment by University of Salford certified assessors.

The trainer team for this session were all POCUS course alumni from previous years:

Dr Papa Kojo Mbroh

Dr Papa Kojo Mbroh is a senior doctor in Emergency Medicine at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. He was a candidate on the first course of 2021 and has been using POCUS in his practice since then.

Dr Martha Tufuor

Dr Martha Tufuor is a physician specialist at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. She is also a nephrology fellow in training. She participated in the second cohort of the course in 2022. Martha strongly promotes the use of Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) among doctors and incorporates it regularly into her medical practice.

Dr Pascal Kangberee

Dr Pascal Kangberee is a physician specialist in Cape Coast Teaching Hospital with an interest in respiratory medicine. He was a candidate on the first course of 2021 and has been using POCUS regularly in his practice since then.

Dr Nana Coleman

Dr Nana Adjoa M. Coleman is a resident in training at the Ho Teaching Hospital with a special interest in cardiology. She was a candidate in the fourth cohort of the course in 2024 and strongly promotes the use of Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) among doctors in her facility as well. She incorporates POCUS regularly into her clinical practice and believes this training has revolutionised clinical decision making and service delivery in her practice.

Dr Victor Morhe

Dr Victor Morhe is an internal medicine resident at Ho Teaching Hospital and was a participant in the fourth cohort of the course in 2024. He regularly integrates point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) into his clinical practice, with special interests in cardiac, renal, and vascular ultrasound. His broader career interests include gastroenterology, cardiology, stroke care, and endocrinology.

Dr Charles-Francis Kokor

Dr Charles-Francis Kokor is a physician specialist at the Ghana Police Hospital. He has a particular interest in Cardiovascular and Neurological diseases. He was a participant in the fourth cohort of the course and regularly integrates POCUS in his clinical work.

A full trainer team of POCUS course alumni is a milestone step for the sustainability of the POCUS programme as it signifies an increased depth of POCUS expertise within Ghana, which has been achieved through the delivery of our courses. Increasing the trainer base within Ghana opens up opportunities for increased delivery and the consideration of more sites, whilst reducing the need for international trainers helps reduce travel costs, meaning more funding is available for other aspects of the programme.

For the trainers themselves it means they can help steer the course to be increasingly relevant to future participants as they bring in their own experience, and also help them to improve their practice through peer-to-peer learning as well as step into leadership and advocacy roles for the use of POCUS in Ghana.

Our course alumni already act as POCUS advocates in Ghana, which is highlighted by the fact that a number of this year's participants have colleagues who are POCUS alumni and were motivated to join after hearing about their experiences and seeing the value of POCUS first hand from them.

The importance of trainers sharing their own POCUS experiences during their teaching was highlighted in a standout moment from the delivery of Part 1. A trainer was presenting on a case where they had struggled to orient their scan as the patient did not have a spleen - later that day a participant had the exact same experience while conducting practice scans! It was a very clear demonstration of peer-to-peer learning and great for the cohort to be able to discuss what to do in this situation and learn from it immediately.

Our cohort of participants this year are mainly based in Accra, at public hospitals including: Parliament Medical Centre; Kpone Hospital, Greater Accra; Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and UGMC. One participant works at KATH, Kumasi. They are from a range of backgrounds including: General Physician, Pulmonology and we also have a Physician Assistant in attendance for the first time.

The in-person delivery of Part 1 of the 2025 course was very successful, and all participants complimented the trainer team in their feedback:

“Trainers are the best”

“Trainers have been very patient and took the time to explain things in detail”

“The trainers took their time and helped a lot with the teaching”.

Bassit (a participant) fed back that there was: "Lots to learn at the start and still a lot to learn, but the course had a lot to offer especially on image optimisation and hand positioning. Looking forward to inputting into practice and helping others improve in my emergency department".

Our trainers also found the session to be successful. Martha fed back:

"This was the first time there were no trainers from the UK, we [the Ghanaian trainers] had an idea of how we wanted it to run and it generally followed this."

Nana (a trainee trainer) fed back:

"I was a bit nervous at the start but pleased to have the opportunity to go through the training again. It meant I could perfect my skills and learn new tricks as well as pass on the knowledge even to those more senior than me, which felt good. This was an enlightening experience and I am looking forward to Part 2 in October."

We are very grateful to our partners: The University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, Ghana who provide the venue and equipment that make this course possible; The University of Salford, who jointly deliver this training programme; and also our sponsors: This programme is sponsored by individual donors and Trust and Foundation Grants. This project has been supported by a financial grant from Bayer Plc. Bayer Plc has had no involvement whatsoever in the development or implementation of the project.