Objective:

To introduce a program, led by neurologists, to promote stroke education and management for internal medicine residents at a large tertiary care academic medical center. 

Background:

Stroke is a common presentation in hospital-based medicine, yet many hospitals do not have support from vascular or general neurologists. As a result, hospitalist physicians are increasingly expected to play a larger role in the acute management of stroke patients. However, the current internal medicine curriculum provides limited exposure to stroke recognition and management. Stroke education programs for emergency room physicians and advanced practitioners have been conducted with success, yet there is a lack of similar programs for medicine residents and hospitalists. Integrated stroke education during the internal medicine residency is a valuable opportunity to equip future hospitalists and primary care providers with the knowledge to gain confidence for effective management of stroke. 

Design/Methods:

Our pilot program will allow medicine residents to gain training in stroke management through a combination of simulations, didactics, and immersive clinical rotations. Structured didactics and case conference will introduce core tenets of stroke recognition, evaluation, and treatment. Residents can apply the knowledge rotating on the inpatient stroke service, working with the neurology attendings and residents on the initial stroke evaluation and subsequent inpatient management of acute stroke. The residents will complete pre-rotation surveys and evaluations to assess their comfort, medical knowledge, and clinical skills; these assessments will be repeated after the rotation. Clinical skills will be assessed with stroke-based medical simulations. 

Results:

Preliminary review of the stroke medical education literature revealed a gap in programs for medicine residents. Outcome data from our pilot program is currently being collected and will be presented in future analysis. 

Conclusions:

While final conclusions will be drawn from the ongoing data collection, we hope the assessments can demonstrate proof of concept for future larger scale stroke education programs.