SENIOR PSYCHIATRY/NEUROLOGY CLERKSHIP ORIENTATION

Neurology Clerkship Section

Patrick A. Griffith, M.D., F.A.A.N. - Course Coordinator

DEPARTMENT OF NEUROLOGY

We are located on the FIFTH floor of the Old Hospital

Office hours: 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday

Department telephone number: 327-6565

Clerkship number:  Latonda Knight 327-5688, Room 510

Orientation is held in the Elam Center room 205. 

THE NEUROLOGY CLERKSHIP

The Senior clerkship period is a shared four-week required Senior rotation with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, allowing the student two weeks of outpatient neurology and two weeks of psychiatry clinic experiences throughout the Nashville community.

GOAL:  The goal of the neurology clerkship section is to teach the principles and skills underlying the recognition and management of the neurologic diseases a general medical practitioner is most likely to encounter in practice.

OBJECTIVE: To expose 4 - 6 senior medical students per two-week clinical session at outpatient neurology clinics at Metro General Hospital or private neurologists' offices in Nashville.  Additional one-day observational sessions will be scheduled to observe EMGs at Metro General Hospital or to participate in the Memory Disorders Clinic in the Clinical Research Center at Meharry. Chair's Case Conference is held every Friday for all students in the four-week rotation.

Students will observe the clinical management of patients with general neurologic disorders under the supervision of attending physicians and Meharry Residents:  evaluate patients in the clinic and discuss findings, diagnosis and evaluation, and see consultations on the wards of General Hospital with supervision of residents and faculty.

The main objectives for the neurology clerkship are:

• To learn how to obtain an accurate neurologic history and to perform and interpret a neurologic examination,
• To learn the appropriate indications for ordering laboratory studies in neurology,
• To learn how to evaluate neurologic emergencies:  coma and mental status change, stroke, and seizures; and common outpatient neurologic problems: headache, dizziness, back and neck pain, and peripheral nerve disorders, and
• To recognize and understand neurologic problems that need referral to a neurologist.

OUTCOME:  At the end of the neurology clerkship section, the student will have a better understanding of common Neurologic diseases and their management and will learn how to evaluate a patient with a Neurologic complaint.

Recommended Text: Braunwald, E. (et.al.), editors:  Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (15th Edition). New York:  McGraw Hill. 2001.

Recommended Articles and Journals:

1.      Neurology section handout packet.

2.      Meharry library websites:

           MD Consult

           Ovid:  EBM Reviews, Cochrane, Medline

           Up-to-Date (nice quick reference)

3.      Recommended web sites:

           www.neuroland.com

                        A veritable feast of neurology sites

           http://www.neuropat.dote.hu/neurology.htm#nexam

                        An internet handbook of neurology

           http://www.aneuroa.org/neurology_links.html  

                        American Neurological Association Neuroscience links

           www.medscape.com/neurologyhome

           www.neurology.org

           Neurology - the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

           Abstracts only - use the library to obtain current articles.

At the end of the rotation the preceptor will evaluate the student based on his/her log, clinical presentation, the patients followed, the academic discussions on patients and his/her overall activity as a senior clerk during the four-week rotation.  Neurology preceptors are required to submit narrative summaries of the student's performance on the last day of the rotation.