Residents in child neurology participate in a three-year program, preceded by two years in the Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC)/UCI Pediatric Residency program to prepare them for successful careers in child neurology.

During each year of neurology training, residents spend time in the inpatient service and our outpatient general neurology and subspecialty clinics, as well as their longitudinal continuity clinic where they follow and manage their own established patients. The remainder of each year is devoted to scholarly activity, electrophysiology and elective rotations to ensure broad exposure to related subspecialties such as neuro-ophthalmology, neuroradiology and neuropathology. These scholarly activities are tailored to meet each fellow’s educational and career goals.

Two doctors discuss a patient's brain scans
Inpatient Adult Neurology

During the first year of neurology training, residents spend a total of six months at UCI Medical Center doing inpatient adult neurology. This time includes rotations with the general neurology service and the stroke service.

Female doctor examining a female patient in his medical office while female nurse writing information about patient
Outpatient Adult Neurology

Residents spend three months during their second and third years at the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center doing outpatient adult neurology rotations. Rotating in adult neurology is an essential part of training that allows residents to focus on neuroanatomy and using the neurological exam to localize pathology, as well as understand the differences and overlaps in neurological diseases in adult versus pediatric populations.*

Teenager talking with psychiatrist
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

All child neurology residents must do four weeks of child and adolescent psychiatry.* This rotation, completed at CHOC Children’s Mental Health Inpatient Center, provides residents invaluable training in common pediatric mental health disorders that many pediatric neurology patients face.

 

*The adult neurology and child and adolescent psychiatry rotations are ACGME program requirements for all child neurology training programs.

Conferences

  • Wednesday noon conference (Wednesdays at noon – faculty-led didactic)
  • Case conference (Thursdays at noon – resident-led case discussion, faculty attend)
  • Professor Round (Thursdays immediately after case conference/Journal Club – faculty-led didactic, case presentation or skills-based workshop)UCI Neurology Grand Rounds (Fridays, 8 a.m.)
  • Epilepsy/surgical conference (Fridays, 1 p.m.)
  • Neuro-radiology conference (second Tuesdays, 8 a.m.)
  • Emergency department, med/surg, and PICU Morbidity & Mortality conferences

Teaching

  • Neurology morning sign-outs (Monday mornings – attended by the entire Neurology Division)
  • Journal Club (fourth Thursdays, in lieu of case conference – presented by a resident with a faculty mentor)
  • Core curriculum (monthly on Thursday afternoons, 3 p.m.)
  • Stroke case review (quarterly)
  • Concussion/traumatic brain injury multidisciplinary team meeting (quarterly)
  • Tumor Board (Fridays, 7:30 a.m.)

Inpatient clinical experiences include caring for patients in the following areas:

  • Neuroscience unit
  • Medical-surgical units
  • Oncology unit
  • Neonatal intensive care unit
  • Pediatric intensive care unit
  • Epilepsy monitoring unit
  • Emergency department

Outpatient clinical experiences include:

  • Tuesday afternoon continuity clinic
  • Scheduled outpatient rotations in which the resident rotates through the following subspecialty clinics:
    • General neurology
    • Epilepsy
    • Concussion/traumatic brain injury
    • Headache
    • Movement disorders
    • Neuro-oncology
    • Neuromuscular/muscular dystrophy
    • Neurovascular
    • Sleep medicine
    • Neurodevelopmental/autism
    • Ketogenic diet clinic
    • Tuberous sclerosis clinic

Call Schedules

Residents are scheduled to be on call, including nights and weekends, throughout their training. The call schedule is created by the chief resident(s) with supervision from the program director. All night-time call is home-call.

medical residents

Residents have several months dedicated to elective rotations throughout their neurology training. We have many offerings for elective rotations, including spending extra time in the subspecialty clinics listed above. Other popular electives across include:

EEG reading | Neuroradiology | Neuropathology* | Neuromuscular/EMG and nerve conduction studies | Sleep medicine/polysomnography | Movement disorders including Botox and DBS |Neuro-ophthalmology* | Neuroimmunology* | Neuro-oncology | Metabolics | Genetics | Research

*These electives are primarily at UCI Medical Center or UCI clinics with adult neurology.

Research training and completion of a scholarly project related to child neurology is an important component of the residency. Each child neurology resident must complete a scholarly project with guidance from a faculty mentor. Residents present this project at the end of the first neurology year at UCI Neurology’s Resident Research Symposium. The project may be basic science or clinical in nature, depending on the resident’s interests.

Research mentors available through CHOC and UCI provide opportunities for lab research, clinical research and translational work. Residents have the opportunity to seek research opportunities and mentors at both institutions. Residents who are interested in pursuing further research during the second and/or third neurology years are strongly encouraged to do so and may use elective time for this.

Child neurology residents participate in the Fellowship Core Curriculum during the neurology training years. This curriculum provides training in lab and clinical research (methodology, study design, biostatistics, scientific writing and grant preparation), research ethics, quality improvement, career planning, medical ethics, health equity and several other topics.