Teaching

During attending rounds, the teaching style is interesting. We discuss a patient that was admitted the night before, but the attending really probes our thinking. For example, given a certain history, what are we looking for on physical exam? And given that, which lab tests will be normal or abnormal? It sounds simple, but is quite difficult to think in this fashion. While I'm taking a history, I start formulating an idea of what's wrong. But I haven't learned to translate that into tailoring my exam to proving or disproving my hypotheses. I almost always do a standard exam, record the abnormalities, and ponder afterwards whether those make sense. I suppose this takes time to learn.

We also go over paper neuro cases in a small group discussion format once a week. This shores up any deficiencies in our learning. I like these sessions because they are a familiar style of learning and have high efficiency in covering material. Once a week, a neurosurgeon comes to discuss a case with us, expanding our learning to issues such as craniotomy, ventricular drains, stereotactic biopsies, lobectomy, etc. Once a week, we also have neuroradiology rounds when we go through MRIs and CTs of the brain, interpreting scans.