- Target Audience
Who are you writing this book for?
Courses where the book might be considered ‘recommended reading’:
Courses for the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery undergraduate medicine.
Physician Associates training is set out in careers advice (https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/physician-associate).
Also especially nurses.
All AHPs including social workers with an interest in brain disorders, dietiticians, physios and OTs.
Pre-qualification and newly qualified especially.
Medicine is fundamentally multi-disciplinary and inter-professional now. Neurology is no exception. It would therefore be wise, in my opinion, to be forward-thinking, and to be considerate about the needs of the wider workforce who interact with neurological patients. This includes allied health professionals, especially nurses, physios and OTs, and physician associates. Any book which is written for juniors must reflect the end point of training. This means that such a book should be factually accurate and reflect current practise and guidelines which a reasonable consultant in neurology would be expected to know.
2. Rationale
I intend this book to be a quick to read ‘one stop shop’ for reading about the range of neurology for pre-qualification or ‘only just qualified’.
There are many new developments, such as headache, genetics, drugs, which have rapidly been adopted in the last few years, which would be missing from most if not all books currently available.
The new curriculum for neurology is being introduced next year, so this is the perfect time to introduce a text for medical students who one day will be trainees of the future. Feedback from a current NHS consultant in adult medicine in London said it was a lot of work to re-educate bad or out-of-date teaching in medical school, and it would be much more preferable for students to learn state-of-the-art material in the first place.
The new neurology curriculum for junior doctors comes into effect from 2021, and the current neurology curriculum for junior doctors is still very much active. I should therefore prefer a prompt publication of this book.
3. Contents
The book will be structured to reflect reliably the weightings of the current modern neurology curriculum.
The curriculum is clearly set out by the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (draft for consultation 2021 https://www.jrcptb.org.uk/sites/default/files/DRAFT%20Neurology%20Curriculum%202021%20250221.pdf and current version 2010 https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/Neurology_Curriculum_FINAL_301110_V0.19.pdf_40512716.pdf).
The blueprint for the weighting of the higher specialist assessment of neurology is currently available here, https://www.mrcpuk.org/sites/default/files/documents/sce-neurology-blueprint%20.pdf, based on the JRCPTB curriculum loosely from 2010 to be updated, https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/Neurology_Curriculum_FINAL_301110_V0.19.pdf_40512716.pdf.
List of contents (last column gives calculated number of book chapter)
Some of the blueprint headings have been given ‘punchier’ titles.
Bl* indicates weighting of the blueprint out of 200 questions – the corresponding number of pages for each book chapter can be calculated from this, assuming a book of length 70,000 words.
| Chapter title | Bl* | Book | |
| 1 | Stroke | 15 | 5250 |
| 2 | Disorders of consciousness and epilepsy | 20 | 7000 |
| 3 | Cranial nerves and visual system | 10 | 3500 |
| 4 | Peripheral nervous system and muscle | 15 | 5250 |
| 5 | Spinal cord and motor neurone disease | 10 | 3500 |
| 6 | Neurological specialties | 20 | 7000 |
| 7 | Neuro-inflammation | 20 | 7000 |
| 8 | Neurology in special groups | 15 | 5250 |
| 9 | Investigations | 15 | 5250 |
| 10 | Cognition, behaviour and neurorehabilitation | 15 | 5250 |
| 11 | Neurosurgery and intensive care | 15 | 5250 |
| 12 | Pain and headache | 15 | 5250 |
| 13 | Movement disorders | 15 | 5250 |
Dr Shibley Rahman blog 