I am an MS3 that has very little exposure to the practical aspect of neurology. I am very interested in what I have studied in neuro, especially stroke, imaging, CSF, spinal cord injuries.
Due to the fact that I will have very little neurology experience before I apply to residency I was hoping you could tell me about your experience in neuro residency/practice if you would be so kind.
What is your typical day like?
What are the boring aspects?
What are the most exciting aspects?
What kind of person in your belief thrives in this specialty?
Do you have ample time to contemplate patient issues?
How do you feel you fit into the healthcare team?
What makes neurology unique?
Please feel free to add anything else about your experience!
Thanks in advance
Thank you for asking this question and I want to provide my experience to you all. I am a PGY-3, and for all the medical students reading this post, in my opinion,
neurology is the best specialty to choose and the specialty makes for a lifelong satisfying career!
As a second note, to give the readers of this thread a bit of a different perspective, please keep in mind
residency is hard and grueling no matter what field you go into. The relative amount of work varies considerably from program to program, and as applicants, definitely keep your eyes out for signs of burnout in residents, which is a very real problem in graduate medical education (the general word for residency) programs everywhere across all specialties.
In my experience, overall, the workload as a neurology resident is comparable to other fields and average in amount. We aren't as overworked as surgeons but don't get a year of cush outpatient like psychiatrists.
What is your typical day like?
It entirely depends on your rotation. At my program, we rotate in 4 week blocks between inpatient and outpatient rotations. A stroke rotation day looks completely different from a general inpatient service day and certainly is much different from a day on neurophysiology reading EEGs.
Overall, what makes this specialty great is the variety in work setting, work hours, and cases you'll experience no matter where you train.
What are the boring aspects?
Similar to other posters, certain consults get a bit tired over time, especially inpatient altered mental status consults (at least to me). However, one thing about neurology that is great is that we are the storytellers and meticulous historians amongst our colleagues, and often even the most boring consult has some interesting twist to it!
What are the most exciting aspects?
I think stroke, or vascular neurology cases, are the best because you can literally save someone's life. We also relieve pain, prevent disability, restore function, and counsel our patients on how to lead better lives like any other field.
Do not believe the very wrong stereotype that neurologists can't do anything for their diseases! A deep brain stimulator can change a Parkinson's patient's life forever; plasmapheresis can take a young person with autoimmune encephalitis from a vegetative state to normal again; an adequately timed triptan can relieve days of misery in a patient with an acute migraine.
Neurologists save lives, relieve suffering, and restore function on a daily basis!
What kind of person in your belief thrives in this specialty?
There are 3 key traits I think that a good neurologist needs - attention to detail, good listening skills, and patience. Neurological disease requires an excellent history, an excellent exam, and a sharp mind to find a diagnosis that sometimes escapes 5 or more other physicians.
Do you have ample time to contemplate patient issues?
I think so. It depends on the workload of a particular program or hospital. Remember, no matter what you do or how busy you are, you always have 60 seconds to breathe and quickly think through a differential diagnosis.
How do you feel you fit into the healthcare team?
We provide expert opinions about the nervous system, which literally no other specialty knows anything about. In terms of specific skills we add to a patients' care, I think neurologists add an ability to take detailed histories, perform in-depth physical exams that mean something, and make diagnoses that relieve suffering, restore function, and prognosticate.
What makes neurology unique?
One of the most unique skills a neurologist learns is localization. Unlike other specialties, most of the time with just a patients' history and neurological exam we can pinpoint sometimes with supreme accuracy where the patients' neuroanatomical dysfunction lies. We don't need labs or imaging to do this, although it helps in some cases.
I hope all the medical students reading this post will consider neurology as a career. Please feel free to message me with any concerns and check out my home program in California, Kaiser LAMC, to learn about why I think its the best place to get the training you need to become an excellent neurologist.
