Neuroscience Clerkship
 

Overview of the Neuroscience Clerkship
Welcome to the Neuroscience Clerkship. This page will review the basics and organization of the clerkship. All third year Case medical students will rotate in the Neuroscience clerkship as part of their required core. The clerkship is four weeks in length.

Clinical Rotations

Student will be assigned to one of seven clinical sites. The clinical sites and their rotations are described here.

Students have the option of requesting an adult or pediatric experience as well as a medical or surgical one. Prior to the start of the clerkship, students should contact the Neuroscience clerkship coordinator, Kristen Stacy, preferably by e-mail, with their first and second preferences for clinical assignments. Please request an e-mail confirmation back to ensure your request has been received.

Assignments are made on a first come, first serve basis. All efforts will be made to accommodate each student's first or second request.

Lerner Tower - Main Entrance to University Hospitals of Cleveland

University Hospital Neurology Ward Service

University Hospital Neurology Consult Service

University Hospital Neurosurgery Service
Louis Stokes VA Medical Center

 Cleveland VA Medical
Center Neurology Service

Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital

Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital Pediatric Neurology Service

Metro Health Medical Center

MetroHealth Neurosurgery Service

Cleveland Clinic Foundation Hospital

Cleveland Clinic Neurology Service

Teaching Program

All students will have responsibilities for inpatient care under the supervision of either Neurology or Neurosurgery house officers and attendings. In addition, students will attend outpatient clinics every week. However, since the rotations are diverse, students will be exposed to different patient populations and clinical problems depending on which clinical rotation they are assigned.

However, all students will receive the same core didactic teaching material. Each Thursday, students are excused from their clinical rotations to attend the Neuroscience Didactic Teaching sessions. These sessions are intended to cover core material that every student needs to know about neurology and neurosurgery. The Thursday schedule follows:
Neurosurgery Demonstrations

10:00 - 11:00 am
RBC Room B501
Neurology Clinical Vignettes

11:00 - 12:00
12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Hanna House 5 Conference Room

Neurosurgery Lecture Series

1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Hanna House 5 Conference Room
Chairman/Professor Rounds

2:30 - 3:30 pm.
Hanna House 5 Conference Room
CPC (Neuropathology)

4:00 - 5:00 p.m. (1st and 3rd weeks)
Pathology Basement Auditorium

Morbidity and Mortality Conference
4:00 - 5:00 p.m. (2nd week)
Hanna House 5 Conference Room

Outpatient Neurology Conference
4:00 - 5:00 p.m. (4th week)
Hanna House 5 Conference Room
Neuroscience Written Examination

At 8:00 a.m. the last Friday of the Clerkship, students report to the School of Medicine electronic testing center (E324) to take the Neuroscience Written Examination. This is a 100 question multiple choice test written by the Clerkship Directors. The examination is based on the Learning Objectives and covers material from the Thursday teaching sessions.

Following the examination, students will discuss the examination with the Clerkship Director and grade their own test. This allows the examination to function as a learning tool as well as an evaluation assessment.
Evaluation Policy

Students will be graded by an objective evaluation strategy using a point system for both their clinical rotations and the neuroscience examination. The Medical School Clinical Evaluation form is utilized for the clinical evaluation with points assigned to each category. Both the attending physician and senior resident on the service will evaluate each student. If there is more than one attending physician or senior resident, the results for each will be weighed in proportion to the time spent together. If a student's exposure to an attending or senior resident is too minimal (i.e., < 1 week), their evaluation will not be included.

The total clinical score (190 points possible) will be added to the neuroscience examination score (100 points possible). Final grades are then defined as follows:
 

Honors: 237 points or greater

Commendable: between 175 and 236 points

Satisfactory: between 134 and 174 points

In order to pass with a satisfactory grade, the student must meet all clerkship expectations and must score a 58% on the Neuroscience test.

There are several ways to obtain a commendable grade from the combination of the clinical and neuroscience test components. This grade range is designed so that if the student is above or meets all clerkship expectations (>50% above) and scores an 80% on the Neuroscience test, they will obtain a commendable grade.

Likewise, there are several ways to obtain an honors grade from the combination of the clinical and neuroscience test components. This grade range is designed so that if the student is exceptional or above all clerkship expectations (>50% exceptional) and scores an 85% on the Neuroscience test, they will obtain an honors grade.

There is no grading on a curve and no pre-set determination of how many students should receive each grading rank. Accordingly, if all students do honors work, all students will earn an honors grade in Neuroscience, and so forth for the other grades as well.

Lastly, each attending and resident will write formative and summative comments on each student. The summative comments are intended to be used by the Dean's letter that are used when applying for residency.