This study seeks to evaluate the comfort levels of clinical-year medical students in conducting various components of the neurologic exam on patients with altered levels of consciousness. Additionally, it aims to determine the effectiveness of microlearning videos in enhancing these comfort levels.

The neurological examination of patients with altered levels of consciousness is an essential skill for the proper diagnosis and management of neurological disorders in the inpatient setting, yet it can be uncomfortable for healthcare providers to perform. Short educational videos have recently increased in popularity to effectively facilitate the learning of such challenging topics within the field of medicine.

Surveys were administered to third-year medical students during their neurology clerkship before and after viewing one minute long videos demonstrating the neurological exam for a patient with an altered level of consciousness.

Notably, the pre-video survey students with prior neurological ICU or inpatient stroke rotation experience reported increased comfort levels than those without such experiences (p < 0.05). Following exposure to the videos, the average percentage of the unconscious neurological exam they reported as comfortable increased significantly from 25% to 54% (p < 0.05). Assessing three or more unconscious patients was also associated with increased comfortability compared to those who assessed two or fewer (p < 0.05).

In conclusion, our strategies—comprising microlearning video clips, neurological ICU or stroke rotations at our institution, and the assessment of three or more unconscious patients—have proven effective in enhancing comfort levels with the unconscious neurological exam. We plan to integrate these videos into the core neurology clerkship curriculum at our institution, with the goal of eventually expanding to include a broader range of patient demographics.