The Department of Neurology at The Ohio State University has a long history of a dedicated commitment to education. The missions of the residency are to help residents develop the highest level of clinical and diagnostic skills in neurology, gain exposure to academic research opportunities, engage in teaching opportunities, foster enthusiasm and passion at work, function well in a team environment and model compassionate patient care, all while maintaining resident work-life balance with a focus on wellness. An ultimate aim is to launch highly successful careers for our trainees, to train residents to become all-rounded, clinically competent neurologists and advance the field of neurology.
Our program has a full complement of faculty in the broad range of subspecialties, including nationally recognized leaders. Faculty are represented in cerebrovascular disease, cognitive, epilepsy, general neurology, headache, health service research, movement disorders, neurocritical care, neurogenetics, neurohospitalist, neuro-immunology, neuromuscular, neuro-oncology, neuro-otology, neuropsychology, pain management, sleep, spinal cord injury, sport concussion and teleneurology, as well as a strong representation of neuroscientists. Both the faculty and our residents are highly engaged in teaching and have received numerous awards recognizing that.
Our program has state-of-the-art facilities, including a dedicated Brain and Spine Hospital, and vast exposure to subspecialty clinics and procedural studies. Starting in the PGY-2 year, our residents also experience a weekly continuity clinic with a variety of general neurology and subspecialty cases. The patients are followed for the duration of residency. Attendings from multiple subspecialties staff the clinic. Continuity Clinic takes place at the Brain and Spine Hospital and Outpatient Care East. The Continuity Clinic allows residents to manage and treat their own patients so they are fully prepared to treat all types of general neurology and subspecialty patients after residency.
In regards to exposure to scholarship, all of our residents are assigned a faculty mentor to help navigate the residency experience, as well as provide a link to opportunities for scholarship and guidance through that process.
Wellness is of utmost importance in our program. Residents engage in monthly wellness activities, supervised by our neuropsychologist, and the program sponsors an annual retreat. There’s a commitment to our residents’ educational experience and culture with an emphasis on the balance between service and education.
In additional to clinical exposure our educational curriculum is robust for preparing our residents for a career in neurology:
- One hour of daily protected time for morning didactics, Monday through Friday (Grand rounds on Tuesdays at that time).
- Full course of introductory lectures on neurologic emergencies during the first week of July (“Bootcamp” week).
- Introductory neuroanatomy early in the year.
- All major neurologic subspecialties annually have dedicated block time for full formal lecture coverage of the subspecialty.
- There are lecture series dedicated on board review purposes covering multiple subspecialty between October through the beginning of February.
- The program also helps fund additional educational opportunities offered by external institutions.
- The chair is organizing high level subspecialty symposiums for each of the major subspecialties in neurology at our university (with invited external faculty who are highly recognized leaders in their respective fields) and externally (Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS®).
Additional measures to balance service and education:
Our residents rotate through a night float system to cover the call needs of the program. Our residents do not take call in Child Neurology with those 3 months of the curriculum dedicated to more of a formative learning experience. Our collaborative partner, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is a top tier Child Neurology program nationally, providing an excellent educational opportunity. Significant faculty and senior resident support is provided at the beginning of the PGY2 year to successfully transition residents through “bootcamp” sessions. This includes a curriculum that starts with a dedicated section on neurologic emergencies allowing for a smooth and comfortable transition into neurology residency.
A note about intern year:
Our PGY1 interns match categorically at The Ohio State University and receive training through an outstanding Internal Medicine program. Additionally, we maintain connection with our interns by having them rotate in our outpatient neurology clinic during one month of their internship, as well as having them gain exposure to the neurocritical care unit. This helps them to gain comfort in evaluating higher level acuity patients in neurology. Our interns also will be coming to our wellness retreats to have interactions with the neurology program prior to their PGY2 year.
Conclusion:
Our goal is to create the best educational experience possible, train well-rounded, clinically competent neurologists and allow our residents to have the highest of satisfaction throughout this exciting training time. Additionally, our aim is to help our trainees realize their vision and goals for their career, including identifying fellowship opportunities, developing their academic careers and/or transitioning to successful clinical practice.
As an example, in the past three years, our resident graduates have moved on to fellowships with a wide range of opportunities and placements here at The Ohio State University. Other fellowship placements have included programs such as Yale, Boston University, the University of Michigan, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, and the Cleveland Clinic, among others. We are very proud of our residents, their accomplishments and the successful careers that they are launching. We enjoy continuing to collaborate with them after they graduate as they make an impact on the field of neurology.
