Home-based point of care ultrasound performed by nurses in a home care team: a practice-based experience
Carlos MARTIN, Ines ARANCIBIA and Josep Maria VILASECA
We describe the experience of a home care team in which nurses are the main providers of POCUS examinations at patients’ homes.Our home care team consists of a nurse, a physician and a clerk, providing continuity of care for approximately 120 homebound patients with complex chronic conditions, elderly patients, disabled patients or palliative needs. The team completed six accredited POCUS (Point of Care Ultrasound) training sessions covering the main systems: lung, vascular, abdominal, soft tissue, musculoskeletal and FAST examination. After, completion of training (October 2025), home-based POCUS examinations were systematically incorporated into clinical practice.The originality of this topic lies in the fact that, to date, most ultrasound examinations have been performed by medical professionals. This work demonstrates that nursing staff are also adequately trained to perform ultrasound examinations correctly and to draw accurate clinical conclusions from them.Seven, home-based POCUS examinations were performed during the study period, all conducted independently by nurses, within their scope of practice. Indications included vascular assessment (n=2, suspected deep vein thrombosis), lung ultrasound (n=2, suspected heart failure exacerbation), and abdominal ultrasound (n=3, including suspected bladder neoplasm, ascites and hepatic pathology related to jaundice). In all cases, POCUS findings confirmed the initial diagnosis. None of the patients required transfer to hospital or additional outpatient imaging and the acute clinical condition was solved at home.Although the ultrasound equipment used in this study performs well, it poses challenges for home use due to its large size and significant weight. This makes it difficult to handle in a domestic setting. Even that the number of patients examined so far is low, POCUS performed by a nurse is extremely useful to clarify the initial diagnosis and to avoid referrals to the hospital and to the emergency room. Nurses are enough skilled to perform POCUS and to contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of the patient at home.In conclusion, nurses are skilled to perform point of care ultrasound with high quality. This experience can be generalized to broader settings. Further studies with a larger number of cases are needed to reinforce these conclusions.
