Medical students’ experience of emotions and success in neurological studies – What do they tell us?

Abstract

BackgroundThere is a need to develop effective educational experience in neurology to improve the students’ skills in diagnosing and managing patients with neurological symptoms or disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the medical students’ attitudes and emotions towards neurology before and after the four week clinical course at two Finnish Universities in order to find elements to improve effective learning by decreasing the emotional stress in medical studies.MethodsIn this two-stage study, 58 medical students participated in an internet survey with open-ended questions after completing a clinical neurology course.In the content analysis of this survey 20 students (35%) were identified with negative anticipation towards neurology before undertaking the clinical neurology course. In the second phase of the study, the narrative analysis method was used to analyse the face-to-face interviews. Two of these interviews are described in this paper and represent cases who expressed negative emotions in both online survey and narrative interview.ResultsAccording to the content analysis, the principal emotions that were experienced at the beginning of the clinical neurology course were insecurity about personal performance (n = 19, 95%) anxiety (n = 9, 45%) and fear (n = 6, 30%). During the course the combined negative emotions (insecurity, anxiety, and fear) decreased in 80% of students (16/20 cases), remained unchanged in 15% (3/20) and could not be evaluated in 1 (5%) case. The main reasons for the observed negative anticipation were the complexity of neurology and challenges in the interpretation of clinical findings. Based on content analysis and narratives, elements that were evaluated as the most significant contributors in reducing this included small group teaching with real patients, teachersʼ expertise and the increase in self-confidence.ConclusionTeaching with appropriate didactic methodology and feedback, and plenty of practical training can improve effective learning in neurology. We suggest that the pedagogic competence of the clinical teacher influences a student’s motivation and proficiency and reduce stress in neurology-related learning tasks.

Primary care management of headaches and how direct-access MRI fits: a qualitative study of UK general practitioners’ views

“…This perceived lack of competence could be helped through better training, both during medical school and once qualified, as recently reported in Finland. 44 The educational talk focused on headache diagnosis and holistic management, including how to avoid triggers, recommended psychological treatments, medication, how to offer reassurance, managing risk and the option of referral for scanning. The impact of this on GPs’ management may be to facilitate reassurance without referral.…”

Preventing “neurophobia”: Remodeling neurology education for 21st-century medical students through effective pedagogical strategies for “neurophilia”

“…Many studies have documented this “fear of the neural sciences and clinical neurology and the medical students' inability to apply their knowledge of basic sciences to clinical situations” to be a global “pandemic” and is said to affect 50% of medical students at one point during their undergraduate training. Studies establishing neurophobia to be a well-documented phenomenon worldwide come from the United States,[ 12 13 14 ] Canada,[ 15 ] India,[ 16 ] Sri Lanka,[ 17 ] China,[ 18 ] Singapore,[ 19 ] Saudi Arabia,[ 20 ] the United Kingdom,[ 21 ] Ireland,[ 22 ] Finland,[ 23 ] and the Caribbean. [ 24 ] There are also similar studies from Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.…”

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Exame neurológico essencial segundo especialistas e acadêmicos de medicina

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