Neurophobia Among Medical Students: Is Virtual Teaching the Answer?

Abstract

Introduction‘Neurophobia’ is well-recognised to dissuade medical students from the neuro-centric specialities and limit the success of neurology and neurosurgery teaching at medical school. Past studies have associated neurophobia with deficiencies in medical education. AimsWe performed a cross-sectional analysis on medical students’ confidence and perceived level of knowledge in recognising the following neurosurgical and neurological emergencies- ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, status epilepticus, subarachnoid haemorrhage, raised intracranial pressure, acute hydrocephalus, spinal cord injury, cauda equina syndrome and traumatic brain injury. Additionally, we assessed the utility of virtual seminars in neurosurgery and neurology teaching. MethodsMedical students from King’s College London were invited to a virtual teaching session. We obtained pre- and post- teaching scores for students’ subjective ability to recognise specific neurological and neurosurgical emergencies, along with their confidence in the subject. Results97 medical students attended the teaching session. For our sample group’s subjective rating on their confidence in neurology or neurosurgery as a subject, we obtained a mean score of 3.87 and a median score of 4.Across all domains, there was a significant forward shift in the distribution curve of scores post-teaching.We obtained statistically significant differences for all 9 neurological and neurosurgical emergencies evaluated in our questionnaire (Asymp.Sig. <0.001). Median scores for all 9 conditions improved after the teaching session, with >50% positive ranks seen within each group.Across the teaching modalities compared; placement-teaching was the highest scoring while online lectures received a better rating than in-person lectures. ConclusionIn neurosurgery teaching, virtual seminars may compensate for deficiencies that currently exist within medical education, hence limiting the effects of neurophobia.