Scientific Abstract

Background: Rapid advancements in the field of neuroscience have not been mirrored by a development of adequate and effective neuroscience teaching in psychiatric training. For learners, a traditional, lecture-based teaching style of neuroscience is often uninteresting and underemphasizes the clinical relevance of neuroscience.  Alternative teaching methods are needed.

Objective: (1) To implement a case-based, interactive teaching style to teach neuroscience for PGY1 residents at Beth Israel Deaconess Psychiatry Residency Program. (2) To evaluate the effect of using a case-based teaching method on residents’ interest to learn neuroscience and comfort level with discussing neuroscience concepts in the clinical setting.

Methods: Five 45-minute-long teaching sessions are implemented for 10 first-year residents at the aforementioned residency. The format of every session includes discussion of a clinical case, role playing, and review of underlying neuroscience concepts. Pre- and post-surveys are administered to assess residents’ level of interest in clinical neuroscience and comfort in discussing learned concepts with patients, using Likert scales from 1 to 5.

Results: 7 and 4 participants completed the pre-survey and post-survey, respectively. A mean and median of 4.14/5 and 4/5 in the pre-survey, and 3.75/5 and 3.5/5 in the post-survey are reported for level of interest in neuroscience. A mean and median of 2.71/5 and 2/5 in the pre-survey, and 2.75/5 and 3/5 in the post-survey are reported for comfort level in discussing neuroscience concepts with patients.

Conclusion: No significant change in comfort nor interest levels are identified between pre- and post-survey results. Results are limited by small sample size. Consideration of additional measures to evaluate the effect of the intervention are needed. Further data collection is underway as teaching sessions will be repeated in 2023 and 2024.