About This Career

Diagnoses, manages, and treats disorders and diseases of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, with a primarily nonsurgical focus.

This career is part of the Health Science cluster Therapeutic Services pathway.

A person in this career:

• Interviews patients to obtain information, such as complaints, symptoms, medical histories, and family histories.
• Examines patients to obtain information about functional status of areas, such as vision, physical strength, coordination, reflexes, sensations, language skills, cognitive abilities, and mental status.
• Performs or interprets the outcomes of procedures or diagnostic tests, such as lumbar punctures, electroencephalography, electromyography, and nerve conduction velocity tests.
• Orders or interprets results of laboratory analyses of patients' blood or cerebrospinal fluid.
• Diagnoses neurological conditions based on interpretation of examination findings, histories, or test results.
• Prescribes or administers medications, such as anti-epileptic drugs, and monitor patients for behavioral and cognitive side effects.
• Identifies and treats major neurological system diseases and disorders, such as central nervous system infection, cranio spinal trauma, dementia, and stroke.
• Develops treatment plans based on diagnoses and on evaluation of factors, such as age and general health, or procedural risks and costs.
• Informs patients or families of neurological diagnoses and prognoses, or benefits, risks and costs of various treatment plans.
• Prepares, maintains, or reviews records that include patients' histories, neurological examination findings, treatment plans, or outcomes.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would sit most of the time. There's some walking and standing. You may have to lift and carry things like books, papers or tools weighing 10 lbs. or less.
• Exposed to disease and infections more than once a month through work such as patient care, laboratory work, and sanitation control
• Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Seeing clearly up close
• Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel