Neurophobia: Fear of neurology during medical clerkship in three Nigerian medical schools

Aim: To ascertain the perception of Nigerian medical students of neurology in comparison with 7 other major medical specialties. We sought to known whether neurology was the speciality students consider most difficult and the reasons for this and to appraise their opinion on how neurosciences subjects and neurology were taught. Method: Self-administered questionnaires was used to obtain information from randomly selected clinical students from 3 medical colleges in Nigeria (Univeristy college Hospital, Ibadan; Univeristy of Ilorin, Ilorin; LAUTECH University, Osogbo). Results: Of 320 questionnaires sent out, 302 were returned given 94% response rate. Students’ felt they knew neurology least of all the 8 medical specialties, and were not confident of making neurological diagnosis. About 82% of students indicated they learnt neurology best from bedside teaching, followed by use of medical textbooks. Close to 15% found online resources very useful for learning neurology and 6% indicated to have learnt from group discussion. Histology and biochemistry were the preclinical subjects participants opined were least useful for learning neurology. The most frequent reasons why they felt neurology was difficult were: problems with understanding neuroanatomy (49%), insufficient exposure to neurologcial cases (41%), too many complex diagnoses (32%) and inadequate neurology teachers (32%). Conclusion: Nigerian medical students perceived Neurology as the most difficult medical specialty and are not interested in specializing in it. Neurology education would be improved upon by provision of more bedside tutorials and increased availability of online facilites to enhance learning. There is need to emphasize more of small group discussions so that students will be used to team work after graduation.