Undergraduate Education

Medical students are taught about the neurosciences in the first course of the second year of the undergraduate curriculum. Provided over an eight-week period at the beginning of the second year (in the three-year curriculum), the neurosciences component is combined with content from geriatrics, otolaryngology and ophthalmology. The course, titled, ‘Course V – Neurosciences, Aging and Special Senses,’ is given under the auspices of the Undergraduate Medical Education office of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.

The course, entitled Course V – Neurosciences, Aging and Special Senses, is overseen by the Undergraduate Medical Education office of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. 

The neurosciences content in the course begins with a series of lectures on the functional anatomy and physiology required to evaluate patients presenting with neurological complaints. The remainder of the content covers clinical presentations of neurological illness as well as sessions devoted to specific neurological conditions. The curriculum is taught by approximately 130 teachers, including 60 from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. 

Course content is delivered via a combination of lectures, patient presentations, small group seminars and bedside teaching sessions. A group of approximately 15 teachers from the department have taken some further faculty development training and have committed to supervising many of the small group and clinical teaching sessions.