How to tackle ‘Neurophobia’: a student led approach: Abstracts presented at Joint Meeting of the British & European Associations of Clinical Anatomists Summer Scientific Meeting 2017, Warwick, United Kingdom

‘Neurophobia’ is a well-described attitude amongst medical students, whereby learning subjects associated with neurology and the brain are feared as they are perceived as the most challenging. Based on our own experience of this attitude as a group of four final year medical students at the University of Bristol, we established a near-peer neuroanatomy teaching course. Through this, we hoped to dispel these myths, to enthuse students, build their confidence and to inspire them to take their knowledge further. We designed our course, to shadow the Year 2 neuroanatomy content of the university syllabus, delivering this through rotating small groups over five sessions. The majority of students attending sessions were Year 2 medical students (n=30-50 per session). We asked participants to complete an anonymous online feedback survey on the course (completion rate=76%), 64.7% of students rated the course as excellent. Comparison of pre- and post-course confidence levels demonstrated improvements across all subject areas. Over 90% of students found near-peer teaching useful and would recommend this course to others. We feel our course has delivered in its aim of improving confidence and understanding in neuroanatomy in medical students and has demonstrated the benefit of near-peer teaching in this area.