Background and Problem Statement: Neurophobia, the fear of, discomfort with, and dislike of clinical neurology, is frequently due to poor experiences in preclinical neuroscience education among medical providers. We developed, implemented, and assessed a curricular innovation using clinician-educators and team-based learning (TBL) with the goals to demonstrate clinical relevance in neuropathology, enhance student engagement in neuropathology education, and promote direct application of knowledge.
Methods and Curriculum Description: We identified an underperforming neuropathology curriculum within the second-year medical student neuroscience course at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and implemented a traditional TBL curriculum to deliver this content. In addition, we transitioned to primarily clinician-led lectures in the neuropathology curriculum. We assessed student opinions of the curricular changes though end-of-course feedback, the implementation of a novel survey, and semistructured interviews with students. We assessed outcomes on the course final examination and overall course performance, comparing student performance in the preimplementation phase (year 2020-2021) with that in the postimplementation phase (year 2021-2022) using a 2-sample test.
Results and Assessment: Student opinions of the curricular changes were positive on the end-of-course evaluation (79.4% rated TBL as good or excellent) and novel survey (89%-96% of students rated the portions of the curriculum positively). Themes identified in free text responses and through qualitative interviews included an appreciation of the streamlined course content and a sense that the various sessions within the neuropathology curriculum effectively reinforced learning. Student performance on the final examination was similar in the preimplementation vs postimplementation phases (81.2% correct vs 80.3% correct; = 0.37). Performance on the neuropathology subsection of the final examination was also similar among the 2 cohorts (82.6% correct vs 83.9% correct; = 0.36).
Discussion and Lessons Learned: We demonstrate the feasibility and utility of a transition to primarily neurologist and neurosurgeon-led lectures and the implementation of a TBL curriculum within a neuroscience course. While we report data from implementation at a single center, these results have potential relevance to other courses, given our demonstration that TBL is a useful method to deliver neuroscience learning, nonpathologist lecturers can effectively provide neuropathology education, and a small number of educational faculty can be engaged to deliver this material.
