Neurological Assessment
at Bedside

• Perform a structured, head-to-toe focused bedside neurological assessment efficiently and reproducibly
• Score the Glasgow Coma Scale accurately across eye, verbal, and motor responses and state the severity band
• Recognize acute stroke using BE-FAST and activate the time-critical pathway without delay
• Deliver seizure first aid and recognize status epilepticus as a medical emergency
• Examine pupils and cranial nerves and interpret lateralizing findings
• Work up altered mental status and exclude reversible, medical causes before any “psychiatric” attribution
• Interpret head-circumference variation as a measurement, not a diagnosis — and assess faith by function, safety, and distress, never by its content

The bedside neurological exam is the most information-dense five minutes in clinical medicine. Long before any scan, the brain tells you what it needs — through the eyes, the words, the strength of a grip, the symmetry of a smile. This module teaches you to read that story under time pressure, in the order that catches the dangerous, reversible things first.

Module 08 is not a substitute for imaging or for the neurologist. It is the structured observation that decides how fast imaging and the specialist are summoned — and that, in stroke and status epilepticus, is the difference that saves brain tissue.

A complete neurological exam can take forty minutes. A focused bedside exam takes five, and answers the only questions that matter acutely: Is consciousness intact? Is there a focal deficit? Is this getting worse? Run it in a fixed order so nothing is skipped under pressure.