To investigate the usefulness of the sequential teaching method in cervical spine ultrasound training among young sonographers.

The sequential teaching method which combined the anatomy, CT images, and ultrasound images was used in the cervical spine ultrasound training among 47 young sonographers in August 2021 at the Department of Ultrasound, the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital. The anatomy and CT and ultrasound features of five important structures of the cervical spine were taught sequentially and the total time was 60 min. After the teaching, the teaching effect was evaluated by the accuracy of the sonographers to identify the important cervical spine structure in the ultrasound images. The sonographers' satisfaction with the course was evaluated with the Likert scale.

The accuracy of the 47 young sonographers to identify the five important cervical structures was 93.62% for the posterior tubercle of the C7 transverse process, 87.23% for both the anterior and posterior tubercles of the C6 transverse process and the medial branch of the cervical nerve, 85.11% for the longitudinal section of the facet joint, and 82.98% for the cervical intervertebral foramina. The majority [74.47% (35/47)] of the young sonographers were strongly satisfied with the teaching method, 21.28% (10/47) were satisfied, and 4.26% (2/47) expressed uncertainty about this teaching method.

The sequential teaching method based on the anatomy, CT images, and ultrasound images of the spine structure is a useful teaching method and could be used in spine ultrasound training for young sonographers.