Neurodiagnostics and Sleep Science students gain real-world experience during their summer practicums hosted at UNC Hospitals. The students create an original business plan, educational plan, and quality assurance plan, to address the issues they encountered during their practicum. Students pitch their plans to peers, instructors, hospital administrators, and the medical director. The practicum allows students to demonstrate professional behavior and cultural awareness in the clinical setting. During the practicum students are given clinical instruction in polysomnography, electroencephalography, intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring, nerve conduction studies, dental sleep medicine, evoked potentials, and long-term epilepsy monitoring.
The practicum is an opportunity for students to apply the material they’ve learned in the classroom, and to shadow physicians and administrators. Student Krystal Rowan said: “Our practicum hours this summer ignited a passion in me for science and medicine. The NDSS program is changing the outlook of my career and has initiated profound personal growth over the last year. I look forward to graduating from UNC in 2019.”
-Krystal Rowan and William Early