RESEARCH ARTICLE


Structured Didactic Teaching Sessions Improve Medical Student Neurology Clerkship Test Scores: A Pilot Study



Daniel L Menkes*, Mary Reed
Department of Neurology, University of Tennessee health Sciences Center at Memphis, 855 Monroe Avenue, Link Building, Room 415, Memphis, TN 38163, USA


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Creative Commons License
© Menkes and Mary Reed; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Neurology, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center at Memphis, 855 Monroe Avenue, Link Building, Room 415, Memphis, TN 38163, USA; Tel: (901) 448-6199; Fax: (901) 448-7440; E-mail: dmenkes@utmem.edu


Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of didactic case-based instruction methodology to improve medical student comprehension of common neurological illnesses and neurological emergencies. SETTING: Neurology department, academic university. PARTICIPANTS: 415 third and fourth year medical students performing a required four week neurology clerkship. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Raw test scores on a 1 hour, 50-item clinical vignette based examination and open-ended questions in a post-clerkship feedback session. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant improvement in overall test scores (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Didactic teaching sessions have a significant positive impact on neurology student clerkship test score performance and perception of their educational experience. Confirmation of these results across multiple specialties in a multi-center trial is warranted.

Keywords: Medical student, education, didactic sessions, feedback, test performance.