AAN Curricula for Neurology Residents
Program and Fellowship Director Resources
The AAN Curricula provides recommendations for neurology learning objectives and educational material.
CURRICULUM IN NEURO-ONCOLOGY for NEUROLOGY RESIDENTS
Neuro-oncology is a growing subspecialty of neurology with a wide range of diseases, many of which are rare, that are associated with a broad spectrum of neurologic symptoms and complications. Many patients with brain tumors first present to general neurology with complaints of common neurological symptoms, such as headaches or confusion, and others present to the emergency room with symptoms such as seizures or falls and are first evaluated by inpatient or consulting neurology teams. It is important for neurology residents to understand neuro-oncologic disease so that they feel comfortable in the initial approach to patients with brain and spine tumors, are able to recognize urgent or emergent situations, feel comfortable with common neurological complications of cancer, and can share common language with neuro-oncology specialists when they need to make a referral. The purpose of this document is to share a curriculum of core competencies in Neuro-oncology essential for all neurology residents to learn to practice general neurology and care for patients with neuro-oncologic disease.
Neuropalliative Care Curriculum for Neurology Residents
This curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Consortium of Neurology Program Directors and Graduate Education Subcommittee, provides a comprehensive outline of the relevant neuropalliative care educational goals for future generations of neurologists-in-training. The clinical scope of this curriculum encompasses evaluating palliative needs, conducting serious illness and goals-of-care conversations, assessing and communicating prognosis, and undertaking symptom management for selected common and uncommon neurologic conditions.
This outline serves to aid in the development of neuropalliative learning objectives and educational material and thus is aimed primarily at neurology residency directors and educators who seek to provide a framework for primary neuropalliatve skills for neurology trainees. These objectives can serve as the basis for a dedicated neuropalliative rotation, or can be applied throughout residency when addressing topics pertinent to serious neurological conditions. Additionally, a list of resources to aid in teaching communication skills, symptom assessment, and other neuropalliative topics are provided in the index.
Psychiatry Curriculum for Neurology Residents
This curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Consortium of Neurology Program Directors and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training, provides a comprehensive outline of the relevant educational goals for the future generation of adult neurologists learning psychiatry during residency. The clinical scope of this curriculum is common and uncommon psychiatric disease encountered in typical adult neurology practices. This outline serves to aid in the development of psychiatry rotation learning objectives and educational material, and thus is aimed primarily at neurology residents and residency directors, but also at individual teachers, to help tailor specific topics to the level of the neurology resident.
Sleep Medicine Curriculum for Neurology Residents
This curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Consortium of Neurology Program Directors and Graduate Education Subcommittee, provides a comprehensive outline of the relevant educational goals for the future generation of adult neurologists learning sleep medicine during residency. The clinical scope of this curriculum is common and uncommon sleep disorders encountered in typical neurology practices. While the all-encompassing scope of this outline covers more than is expected to be learned by neurology residents on a given subspecialty rotation, the measurable objectives are included to provide program directors and other rotation developers the means of evaluating whether a minimum competence in sleep was attained in any combination of specific areas. Finally, as sleep medicine is a cross-disciplinary neurologic subspecialty, the curriculum ends with a table highlighting overlapping conditions between major sleep disorder categories and neurologic subspecialties.
Women's Curriculum for Neurology Residents
Women’s Neurology is a specialized curriculum that explores important aspects of neurological care through the lens of sex and gender across the lifespan. This curriculum identifies core competencies in five key subspecialties of neurology including headache, cerebrovascular diseases, demyelinating diseases, epilepsy, and neuromuscular diseases as it pertains to pathophysiology, clinical approach, diagnostic evaluation, and treatment strategies.
The Graduate Education Subcommittee is currently working to develop additional curricula in other neurologic subspecialties.
Please contact Lucy Persaud, Associate Director, Trainee Education at lpersaud@aan.com with any questions.