Tackling Neurophobia among Medical Professionals from Its Inception: Role of Medical Curriculum to Treat This Epidemic Phenomenon

Abstract

Neurophobia is a term used to describe the fear of any topic related to neurology due to failure to integrate basic science knowledge to clinical situation. It has been found that majority of first liner medical staff felt less confident in dealing with patients with neurological illness. This is rather alarming since as the improvement of medical facilities in the recent decade, the age span of the population increases hence, so does their related neurological diseases. Probing into this phobia among the medical professionals has led to one common problem-their undergraduate experience. It has documented that high percentage of disinterest to neurological subject due to its teaching methods and the complexity of the topics. The aim of the study was to discuss on various teaching strategies to overcome this phobia. It has been found that vertical and horizontal integration has been beneficial in augmenting students understanding and retention of knowledge. Thus, it has been implemented and suggested as the suitable curriculum format in medical undergraduate programme. Apart from that, in coherence of IR 4.0 era, there are many innovative teaching techniques that have been studied over the years to facilitate teaching and promote students’ motivation towards neurological topics. However, some traditional sessions such as dissections classes still are very much relevant in pre-clinical teaching sessions. Neurophobia has been an “epidemic disease” for decades. The role of tailoring teaching methods to meet with the current students’ need has shown promising result to tackle this issue.