Neurosurgery Education in the Medical School Curriculum: A Scoping Review

Despite a high burden of neurosurgical disease that is often assessed, investigated, and managed by generalists, to our knowledge, there is no specific medical school curriculum in neurosurgery. This scoping review was carried out to map available evidence pertaining to the provision of neurosurgery education in the medical school curriculum across the world.

This review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews. Inclusion criteria were full-text articles reported from 1999 onward, which reported on neurosurgery education in the medical curriculum.

Ten studies were included. Six were from the United Kingdom, 2 from the United States, and 1 each from Canada and Ireland. Seven studies reported perceptions of medical students and 5 reported perceptions of clinicians. Three main themes were identified. Neurosurgery was perceived as an important part of the general medical student curriculum by students and neurosurgeons but less so by medical school deans. Exposure to neurosurgery teaching was varied but, when received, deemed useful and students were keen to receive more. Interest in a neurosurgical career among surveyed medical students was high.

The limited evidence has shown variability of perceptions about the importance of neurosurgery among stakeholders and medical students' exposure to neurosurgery teaching. Our findings highlight the need to systematically assess specialty-specific teaching and determine adequacy. Stakeholders should include neurosurgeons, medical educators, general practitioners, and the variety of specialists who play a crucial role in the management of patients with neurosurgical conditions.