Benefits of Extracurricular Participation in Dissection in a Prosection‐Based Medical Anatomy Program

Abstract

The benefits of cadaveric dissection vs. prosection in medical anatomy education have been extensively debated. The University of Ottawa offers compressed (46.5 lab hours), prosection‐based curricular anatomy education with extracurricular regional dissection electives. This study aimed to characterize benefits related to elective cadaveric dissection. Undergraduate medical students were surveyed in May 2014 regarding motivations and perceived benefits of participation in dissection. The response rate for the survey was 47% (225/478 students). The survey included both Likert‐style items and open‐ended items, which were qualitatively analyzed for emerging themes. We then characterized dissector (DIS) and non‐dissector (NON) student academic performance. The majority of students (70%) participated in at least one dissection elective. The primary motivation for, and benefit derived from, this elective was related to perceived enhancement of clinically relevant anatomical knowledge. Relative to NON group, performance of the DIS group was significantly greater (P<0.001) on practical examinations (+5%), anatomy‐related items (+7%) and discriminating anatomy items (+9%) that typically assessed knowledge application. Finally, performance along these assessment metrics generally was enhanced when students participated in multiple electives. Our results show that dissection electives were valued by the majority of medical students and were perceived to address curricular deficits in clinical anatomy knowledge. Dissection participation had a significant impact on student examination performance, with the largest impact observed on discriminating items related to anatomical knowledge application.