A Global Perspective of Muscular System Coverage in Undergraduate Human Anatomy and Anatomy & Physiology Courses, Part III: Comparison between Stand‐alone Human Anatomy and A&P Courses

Abstract

There is anecdotal data about the variation in breadth and depth of skeletal muscle coverage in undergraduate human anatomy and Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) courses. Saladin (2008) examined muscle coverage from a small self‐reported sample of 20 A&P instructors. Yet, no comprehensive data collection and comparative analysis about undergraduate muscular system coverage has been performed. Further complicating the matter is that at the undergraduate level, some institutions may offer stand‐alone human anatomy courses while others may offer multiple‐semester combined A&P courses. The format and structure of these two types of courses likely plays a role in the breadth and depth of muscle coverage.In response to a call for more representative data, the authors developed a skeletal muscular survey about undergraduate human anatomy and A&P courses. Muscles surveyed were those listed and described in a typical undergraduate human anatomy text (Human Anatomy, 5th edition textbook by McKinley, O'Loughlin, and Pennefather‐O'Brien (2017)). The survey was created by the authors, underwent several rounds of validation with colleagues, and was administered online via Qualtrics. The research study was deemed exempt by Indiana University IRB –Protocol #1805378498. Participants (instructors of these courses) were recruited via a poster presentation at the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) 2018 meeting and emails to the AAA, HAPS and AACA listservs. Survey data was collected for 163 stand‐alone undergraduate human anatomy courses and 189 undergraduate A&P courses.Stand‐alone human anatomy courses have the following characteristics: 77.5% are taught at 4 year baccalaureate institutions, and are housed primarily in biology departments followed by anatomy departments. In contrast, 53% of the A&P courses are taught at community colleges, and are housed primarily in biology departments followed by multidisciplinary health sciences departments. Both human anatomy and A&P courses were similarly likely to teach specific muscles and compartments across broad muscular regions (e.g., back, thorax, upper limb), although the A&P course percentages were slightly lower. The human anatomy courses required students to identify more specific muscles in each region than their A&P counterparts. In addition, a greater proportion of stand‐alone human anatomy courses required students to learn specific muscles of the hand, foot, and pelvis. These comparisons about muscular system coverage between human anatomy and A&P courses provide a better picture of the undergraduate anatomy landscape and should help guide instructor discussions about curricula.Support or Funding InformationnoneThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.