By Tiny Tickers Head of Training, Anne Rhodes
When I joined Tiny Tickers four years ago, I was tasked with producing some fetal cardiac information for sonographers to keep in their departments, as part of a ‘sonographer toolkit’.
Having access to textbooks and literature is fantastic for healthcare professionals. However, these resources are often only utilised when staff have time in their busy schedule, for example an unexpected 20 minutes in their working day if a patient does not attend an appointment.
The reality is, during a busy ultrasound scanning list, sonographers will rarely have any time to pop to the office to browse through a book.
With this in mind, I decided the solution was something sonographers can carry in their pockets. Quick access to information, when they need it.
At Tiny Tickers, we provide a theoretical presentation as part of our training programme, prior to the hands-on training session. Quite often, sonographers ask to keep the presentation, so they can refer back to it.
This spurred me on to develop these new fetal cardiac information cards. They are quite literally, our ‘presentation in your pocket’.
A set of 14 credit card sized cards, they fit easily into the pocket and are secured by a small chain attached to a ski reel lanyard, which can be extended out of the pocket for access. As well as being compact, the cards are easy to clean.
But most importantly, the cards contain a wealth of information about the fetal heart, from checklists of the normal anatomy sonographers should see when obtaining scanning views required at the 20-week anatomy scan, to covering some of the most common abnormalities, their incidence and other associated defects. Diagrams and scan pictures are included for reference.
Cardiac Nurse, Michelle Beaver, with her fetal cardiac information cards
To finish off, I included some light-hearted, fun facts about the heart and links to further information.
These fetal cardiac information cards are intended for every obstetric sonographer or health care professional who scans fetal hearts. We provide them to all staff attending our training.
The feedback from health professionals is excellent. Cardiac nurse, Michelle Beaver, says, “These info cards are a fantastic asset for my colleagues and patients. I was looking after a 39 year-old lady today who has had many cardiac surgeries since the age of three. She loved finding her condition on the cards, and said it helped her understand it better. They’re really clear and concise.”
Find out more about our sonographer training services here.
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