Development of a Clerkship Reflection Session to Address Medical Students’ Misconceptions of the Field of Neurology
Nicholas Fioravante1, Ediel Almeida2, Kent Martine Mok2, Melissa Motta2
1Neurology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2Neurology, University Of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore
Objective:
Develop a neurology clerkship reflection session that challenges common misconceptions about the field of neurology and reinforces the usefulness of skills learned throughout the clerkship.
Background:
Recent studies have highlighted negative perceptions about neurology among medical trainees that pose a barrier to entry into the field, including outdated perceptions such as lack of effective treatment options and difficulties with localization/neurologic examination. Reflection is a powerful tool in education and could have the potential to address misconceptions about neurology and improve student comfort in incorporating neurology into their future careers.
Design/Methods:

At a single institution, third year medical students on their core neurology clerkship attended a reflection session on the final day of their rotation. Fourth year medical students led these sessions using a reflection framework based on current literature in medical education. The students were prompted to share meaningful experiences, interventions they witnessed that surprised them, and how they feel they can incorporate the skills from the clerkship into their future specialties of choice. A pre- and post- survey was deployed to assess change in opinions following the completion of the reflection. Chi-squared test was performed to compare the results.

Results:

After the reflection session, a significantly larger proportion of students strongly agreed that the interventions in the field of neurology can effectively treat and/or manage disease (35.4% vs 58.3% respectively, p=0.01). In addition, after the reflection session, a significantly larger proportion of students strongly agreed that they would use the skills they learned in their neurology clerkship in their future career (63.1% vs 83.1% respectively, p=0.01).

Conclusions:

Incorporating reflection sessions into neurology clerkships can be a useful tool in challenging misconceptions about the field of neurology for medical trainees. Reflection sessions help students understand the breadth of neurologic interventions and confidently incorporate neurology into their future specialties.

10.1212/WNL.0000000000205925