Clerkship Objectives

The student will develop the following analytic skills during the clerkship:

• Ability to recognize symptoms that may signify neurologic disease.
• Ability to localize the likely site or sites in the nervous system where a lesion could produce a patient's symptoms or signs.
• Ability to distinguish normal from abnormal findings on a neurologic examination.
• Ability to formulate a differential diagnosis based on the time course, relevant historical and demographic features and lesion localization.
• An awareness of the principles underlying a systemic approach to the management of common neurologic diseases including potential emergencies.
• Awareness of the use and interpretation of common tests used in diagnosing neurologic disease.
• Ability to review and interpret the medical literature (including electronic databases) pertinent to specific issues of patient care.

The student will develop the following procedural skills during the clerkship:

• The ability to obtain a complete and reliable neurologic history.
• The ability to perform a focused and reliable neurologic examination and a brief screening neurologic examination.
• The ability to examine patients with altered level of consciousness or abnormal mental status.
• The ability to deliver a clear, concise, and thorough oral presentation of the patient's history and examination.
• The ability to deliver a clear, concise, and thorough written presentation of a patient's history and examination.
• The ability to perform a lumbar puncture.

CHICAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL COMPETENCIES

I.  Medical and Scientific Knowledge:  Knowledge about established and evolving biomedical, clinical epidemiological and social-behavioral sciences and apply this knowledge in caring for patients.

II.   Patient Care and Prevention:  Patient care that is compassionate, appropriate and effective for the promotion of health, prevention of illness, treatment of disease and the end of life.

III. Professionalism and Self-Awareness:  Commitment to professional service, adherence ethical principles, sensitivity to diverse patient populations, and awareness of one's own interests and vulnerabilities.

IV. Practice-Based, Life-Long Learning:  Ability to appraise and assimilate scientific evidence and methods to investigate, evaluate and improve one's own patient care practices.

V. Systems-Based, Interprofessional Practice:  Awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context of health care and the ability to call on system resources and other healthcare professionals to provide optimal care.

VI.  Interpersonal and Communication Skills:  Effective understanding, information exchange and teamwork with patients, their families, and other health professionals.