Comprehensive Neurology Instructorship

Stanford’s Comprehensive Neurology Clinical Instructorship is a 1-year program that aims to produce master clinicians who can deliver care to the rapidly growing outpatient population of patients with multiple neurologic illnesses, complex neurologic presentations and multiple systemic co-morbidities. Our goal is to prepare clinicians to provide consolidated, coordinated and cost-efficient patient care thus minimizing the necessity for patients to see multiple subspecialists and reducing delays in care. Our program will allow candidates to deepen their exposure to common neurologic conditions in the outpatient setting as they may not have had adequate time to experience this in their residency, and to broaden their knowledge in subspecialties that may not have been accessible to them during their training. With increased recognition of Comprehensive Neurology as an academic specialty, and with growing need for broadly trained neurologists in the community setting, this Clinical Instructorship is suited for those wanting to pursue a clinical career with multiple trajectory options.

Clinical Experience

The Clinical Instructor will see patients independently in Comprehensive Neurology Clinic up to three half-days per week. The remainder of the time will be dedicated to exposure to various neurologic subspecialties (including headache, neuromuscular, epilepsy, movement disorders, neuro-otology, neuro-ophthalmology, autonomic disorders, neuro-oncology) as well as specialties with overlap of neurologic symptoms (such as spine neurosurgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and sleep disorders). The Clinical Instructor’s preferences for areas of exposure will be taken into consideration. The Clinical Instructor will have a faculty mentor in each subspecialty area with whom they will work on a weekly basis for ½ day during their 3-6 month rotation. There will be an opportunity to acquire procedural skills including botulinum toxin injections for migraine, NCS/EMG, and potentially trigger point injections. A sample schedule can be provided upon request.

The Clinical Instructor will rotate in clinics on the Stanford University campus, as well as at Stanford Health Care satellite sites such as Emeryville. The patient mix and breadth of faculty expertise at each site will promote a well-rounded academic and more community-based experience.  

Didactics

The Clinical Instructor will have the breadth of exposure to didactics from the entire Stanford Department of Neurology, along with personalized Comprehensive Neurology didactic sessions. Didactics will include weekly Department of Neurology Grand Rounds, attendance at subspecialty case conferences and journal club sessions, and weekly 1:1 discussions with Comprehensive Neurology faculty that will include case discussions, practical skills (such as practice management, coaching for interactions with challenging patients, incorporating clinical research into practice) and didactics on evidence-based clinical practice for a variety of neurologic conditions.  

Scholarly Activity

The Clinical Instructor will have an opportunity to develop their academic interests throughout the entire year during two ½-days per week that are dedicated to scholarly activity. Depending on each Clinical Instructor’s interests, they may pursue additional activities such as supervised clinical research or QI projects leading to preparation of scholarly materials, including posters, abstracts, and/or manuscripts. Involvement in medical education is highly encouraged, with opportunities for teaching medical students and residents. The Clinical Instructor will be encouraged to pursue quality improvement training, such as through application to Clinical Effectiveness Leadership Training (CELT), through independent completion of The Realizing Improving through Team Empowerment (RITE) modules, and through participation in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School. A list of ongoing QI projects in the Department of Neurology is available as a resource. For those seeking ongoing clinical research opportunities, mentorship with colleagues throughout the department is available.