Preclinical Neuroscience Education: Planting the Seed for a Career in Neurology (P11-2.006)

Abstract

<h3>Objective:</h3> The objective is to share experiences and tools from a reformed neuroscience curriculum that fosters a positive message about neurology as a career choice. <h3>Background:</h3> A shortage of neurologists in the United States (US) is an exponential threat to providing neurologic services to a diverse population that transcends life from childhood to aging adulthood. Dall and colleagues reported a 19% reduction of practicing neurologists in the US is projected by 2025.¹ In 2021, only 1.9% of US senior medical students were matched into residency positions in adult neurology and 0.5% in child neurology.² Efforts aimed at planting seeds of inspiration and mitigating “neurophobia” in medical students in their pre-clerkship phase should be an intentional strategy to attract the next generation to neurology. <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> The design is the neuroscience education model. The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences implemented a reformed MD curriculum in 2017. The architecture of the model interweaves the basic and clinical sciences to create a story that goes beyond content delivery but includes faculty reflections, student interest groups in neurology, early clinical experience, and a framework of messaging that defines the hidden curriculum from the practicing neurologist. <h3>Results:</h3> Five years into our persistent continuous quality improvement process, we are now seeing an outcome that showed 7.9% of our graduating students (14/176 students) matched in neurology, including child neurology in 2021. <h3>Conclusions:</h3> The college has a required 4-week neurology clerkship rotation that has consistently rated the highest in student satisfaction (&gt;90%) compared to all other clinical experiences. In preclinical education, there is a competition for what deserves time in an already busy four-year MD experience. We developed a model that would not only teach the basic tenets of neurologic science but observed interest in neurology spike to a level not previously observed. <b>Disclosure:</b> Dr. Laukka has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rashid has nothing to disclose.