Clinical Observer: Stroke Service

Catalog description

This course is a 2 week intensive experience offered summer, fall, and spring semesters on a schedule set by the Department of Neurology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. Students are expected to be present and observe at all of the times set forth by the house staff and attending, generally a 40 hour week minimum. The Objective of the course is to provide the students with the experience of observing patient care provided by 3rd year medical students on a clinical rotation under direct supervision by house staff and attending on an active acute Neurology Service. The PGY-2 Neurology Resident and PGY-3 Chief Resident will always be available for immediate supervision. Students round as Clinical Observers with the CWRU medical students according to their daily schedule. They will learn the basics of neurological history-taking, neurological examination, neurodiagnostic studies, and neurological therapeutics. Didactic sessions covering a wide range of neurologic and neurosurgical topics are covered by faculty members from both departments. The lectures cover the gamut of neurological and neurosurgical disease processes and treatments. Neurosurgery lectures include such topics as cerebrovascular disease, brain tumors, hydrocephalus, spinal disorders, and head trauma as well as doctor-patient communication. Unlike the medical students on the rotation, a Clinical Observer will only observe procedures and will not actively take part in any health care; he/she will act strictly as an observer, but will act as a physiological consultant to the team responsible for providing basic science input to the clinical cases. Prereq: PHOL 481, PHOL 482 , PHOL 483 , PHOL 484 , PHOL 498A and PHOL 498B .