Clinical education (Adult training track)
The residency program aims to develop competent, compassionate, and content neurologists. Helping you find your niche within the specialty and preparing you for your ultimate career destination is the training program’s mission. Education opportunities evolve over the course of three years. All residents participate in weekly conferences and seminars; with advancing years, trainees actually lead discussions or present lectures. Attending physicians teach at bedside and in clinic consistently throughout the residency, though the specific nature of experience also changes as residents progress. The idea is to provide a gradual transition starting with structure and supervision in PGY-2, then later giving adequately broad exposure to subspecialty areas and sufficient flexibility to identify your specific interests.
PGY-2
In the first year, training emphasizes inpatient management of neurological disorders and learning the essentials of neurological history and examination, selection and interpretation of diagnostic tests, and implementation of management plans. Residents typically spend three months on neurology wards at University Hospital, four months as junior consultant at the VA, two months of Pediatric Neurology, one month each in specialty outpatient clinics, neuroradiology and electrophysiology.
PGY-3
The second year dedicates more clinical time to the consultation services at both teaching hospitals. “Selective” months provide required experience in subspecialty areas while elective rotations can be oriented towards specific interests. Residents typically spend two months leading the “consult team” at University Hospital and one or two months as the VA senior consultant. Residents usually fulfill the behavioral neurology/neuropsychiatry requirement in PGY-3. In addition, residents usually rotate for two months of specialty outpatient clinics and one month each of epilepsy subspecialty (new as of 2008) and neuro-intensive care.
PGY-4
The final year of Neurology training is devoted to outpatient clinics, inpatient consults and elective time with further emphasis on supervisory roles. One trainee is selected as Chief Resident, responsible for additional administrative and educational duties. Residents usually complete a “selective” rotation in Neuropathology during the final year. The typical PGY-4 schedule includes three or four months of electives, three or four months leading consult teams at University Hospital and the VA, and additional months on specialty outpatient clinics and epilepsy subspecialty.
Clinical Education (Child Neurology training track)
Just like the adult training program, the Child Neurology Residency is based on the six core competencies. Patients are the focus of care as the resident applies current up-to-date knowledge, while further developing effective communication skills with their patients, families and health care colleagues and maintaining high professional standards. Besides experience common to the adult residency, the Child Neurology Resident will spend considerable time at the new Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion which houses the UNM Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICU, NICU), and the region’s only dedicated Pediatric Emergency Departments. The Carrie Tingley Hospital will also provide Child Neurology trainees with experience in comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation for young patients with a variety of neurological disorders.
Residents receive a broad experience in Child Neurology, including outpatient general child neurology and consultative care for a variety of children with acute or specialized needs. Within the community, trainees will have an opportunity to work with the state Center of Developmental Disabilities. The Child Neurology faculty also conducts over 25 outreach clinics a year throughout the state, providing other unique settings in which the resident trains. The environment affords residents every opportunity to develop competencies that will equip them for the future practice of Child Neurology.
The Division of Child Neurology includes 6 faculty members, all of whom have broad expertise in general child neurology, as well as a spectrum of specialty interests including epilepsy, childhood headache, developmental disorders/CP, traumatic brain injury, neurogenetics, neuromuscular disease and movement disorders. Trainees also benefit from faculty in other departments with expertise in genetics including dysmorphology, metabolic disorders, and molecular biology. Child Neurology residents will interact with the Department of Psychiatry’s division of Child Psychiatry, a strong training program that includes Child Neuropsychology, inpatient consultative service for UNM Children’s Hospital, outpatient clinics and an inpatient unit (the Children’s Psychiatric Center), all located within the UNM Health Sciences Center. Child Neurology residents will also form close working relationships with trainees from the UNM Department of Pediatrics, an exceedingly high-quality program that yearly recruits outstanding residents from across the country.
