Does Neurophobia Exist Among Rehabilitation Sciences Students? A Survey At Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Neurophobia, defined as ‘the fear of neural sciences and neurology’ is reported among medical students, which threatenedtheir performance in neurology course. This phenomenon has not been studied among rehabilitation sciences studentsdespite the significance of neurology as an area for rehabilitation. In this study we aim to assess the perceptions of neurologycourse and the possibility of neurophobia existence among rehabilitation sciences students of Universiti KebangsaanMalaysia (UKM). We also aimed to identify learning methods which are regarded as useful among the students. A surveyusing self-administered questionnaires was conducted among 73 students from School of Rehabilitation Sciences of theuniversity. Questions in the questionnaire were adapted from previous studies, in which neurophobia was indicated by poorknowledge and low confidence level in managing neurology course. Results showed that the percentage of participantswho perceived having good knowledge of neurology was significantly higher than the percentage who claimed of havingpoor knowledge level (90.4% versus 9.6%, p < 0.01). Similarly, the percentage of participants who claimed having highconfidence to handle neurology cases was higher than the percentage who expressed lack of confidence (79.2% versus20.8%, p = 0.03). However, neurology course was perceived as difficult by majority of the participants (78.1%) whencompared to other courses. Majority of the participants (97.3%) perceived clinical teaching as a useful method of learningrehabilitation science courses including neurology followed by problem-based learning (90.4%). While limited exposureto neurology cases was claimed as the main reason to why neurology is difficult. In conclusion, although neurology isperceived as a difficult course among rehabilitation sciences students, the students did not report lack of knowledge andconfidence in the course. This implies that neurophobia does not exist among UKM rehabilitation students. Enhancementof learning methods may assist in reducing the level of difficulty of neurology course among the students.