Undergraduate teaching of neurosurgery – what is the current practice in the UK and is there a need for improvement?

Abstract

There has been concern that the move towards generalism means that specialties, such as neurosurgery, are being pushed out of the undergraduate syllabus. Surveys were created, along with the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, and sent to medical school representatives (MSRs) and neurosurgery programme directors (NPDs) in the United Kingdom (UK). 60% of MSRs and 71% of NPDs responded. Neurosurgical topics were taught by a variety of specialties, and in one medical school, a MSR said that neurosurgery was not taught at all. 83% of MSRs and 80% of NPDs said that neurosurgeons should be more involved in undergraduate education, with 70% of NPDs saying that their unit would be willing to have increased involvement. All NPDs, but only 72% of MSRs, said that neurosurgery should be taught in medical school. Those MSRs who disagreed opined that it was a postgraduate subject, and could be difficult to engage all students. The majority of MSRs and NPDs thought that neurosurgery guidelines would be useful. The most popular forms of guidance were in the forms of curriculum/guidelines, website and powerpoint presentations. It is therefore recommended that neurosurgeons, under the umbrella of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, create national guidelines for the teaching of undergraduate students; to aid their educational colleagues and ensure that accurate, standardised teaching occurs. Care must be taken not to be over-prescriptive in these endeavours.