Clay Modeling for Pelvic Anatomy Review for Third-Year Medical and Physician Assistant Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Whereas cadaveric dissection is essential to learning anatomy and its structural relationships, it is expensive and donors are limited. Lectures alone lack the kinesthetic learning that gross dissection offers. The objective was to determine whether clay modeling with concurrent lecture is an effective way of reviewing female pelvic anatomy for third-year and physician assistant students. METHODS: A pretest preceded each 2-hour lecture presentation and clay modeling session on female internal and external pelvic anatomy for 23 third-year medical and four physician assistant students at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Each student was paired with another to form a working dyad. Peer learning and teaching were facilitated and encouraged throughout each of the two 2-hour lecture and clay modeling sessions. A posttest was administered at the end of each session. RESULTS: Using one-tailed dependent variable t test for comparison of means, there was a significant difference (P<.05) between pretest and posttest scores for all students. There was no significant difference between the mean pretest and posttest scores of the third-year medical compared with the physician assistant students. The group as a whole showed significant improvement in knowledge (P<.05). The dyads showed marked improvement in scores when compared with individual results. CONCLUSION: Clay modeling with concurrent lecture is an effective method to help third-year medical and physician assistant students review internal and external female pelvic anatomy. Interestingly, despite previous shorter anatomy training, the physician assistant students knew as much pelvic anatomy as the medical students.