Undergraduate neurology teaching: Comparison of an inpatient versus outpatient clinical setting

AbstractBackgroundNeurology is often perceived as a difficult discipline by medical students, yet it is an essential part of medical training. While the most common disorders of the nervous system can be observed in the outpatient setting, positive neurological signs are more likely to be found in neurology wards. We aimed to compare the impact of a neurology outpatient versus inpatient rotation setting on the grades obtained by medical students as a proxy measure of the learning outcomes.MethodsWe compared the results obtained by fourth year medical students in practical (OSCE) and multiple choice question (MCQ) exams in neurology, between students whose main (total of 24 h contact) teaching allocation was either the outpatient or inpatient setting, controlling for students’ gender, teacher, academic year and student’ previous achievement (measured by their scores on practical evaluation).ResultsA total of 1127 students were included, of whom 644 (57.14%) were allocated mainly to the neurology ward and 483 (42.86%) to the outpatient clinic. Students assigned to the ward obtained significantly higher grades in the OSCE and MCQ exams than those placed in the outpatient clinic. Teach