NeuroQ

Investigation of Neurophobia amongst North American Veterinary Students and Development of a Veterinary Neurophobia Scoring Tool (VetNeuroQ)

“…A survey tool was created, drawing on previous surveys and reviews of neurophobia in human medical education. [2][3][4][5][6][9][10][11]21 This was further refined through focus group discussions with veterinary students and discussion of the authors with input from psychometricians at the Washington State University Social and Economic Science Research Center Survey Design Clinic.…”

“…These items adapted questions used in a previously validated neurophobia scale with additional items adapted to veterinary neurology education, encompassing the four most commonly reported elements of neurophobia based on medical education literature (interest, perceived difficulty, confidence and knowledge). [2][3][4][7][8][9][10] The scoring tool (Table 1) included a total of 14 items for clinical students and a total of 10 items for pre-clinical students, by omitting items unsuitable for preclinical students that had not yet completed a clinical rotation involving neurological patients.…”

“…1 This complex phenomenon goes beyond just fear, and involves elements of interest, perceived difficulty, knowledge and confidence. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] These perceptions, and resultant negative attitudes towards neurology as a subject have been well documented since the 1950s, amongst human medical general practitioners, medical students, dentistry students and occupational therapy students worldwide. 2,4,[8][9][10][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] This complex multifactorial phenomenon has been shown to affect about approximately 30%-66% of students across various studies, arising during pre-clinical training and worsening over time.…”

“…Interventions for neurophobia are most effective when administered early. 3 However, we do not yet know whether neurophobia exists amongst veterinary students, where in veterinary education neurophobia first arises or what contributes to neurophobia amongst our students. Further, we have no means of identifying neurophobic students that might benefit from targeted interventions or teaching strategies.…”

“…We hypothesized that veterinary students experience neurophobia, reflected by perceptions of low interest, knowledge, confidence, and ease of learning veterinary neurology, similar to their counterparts in human healthcare fields. [2][3][4][7][8][9][10][11] As such, our aim was to conduct the first largescale study to examine veterinary students' perceptions of neurology. The first goal of our study was to survey veterinary students across North American veterinary programs at all stages of training, evaluating student perceptions of neurology directly and relative to other topics, as well as perceptions of pre-clinical and clinical neurology education, including perceived sources of difficulty.…”