Development of an Anatomy Attitude Scale for Medical School Students and Analysis of Their Attitudes

Abstract

Anatomy is one of the most fundamental areas of medical sciences. When medical education is given in its "normal" course, primarily macroscopic anatomy education and other basic medical sciences form the foundation, and then the clinical medical sciences are built on top of this foundation. Due to its importance, as mentioned above, it is known to be a course feared by students newly starting their medical education. A literature search showed that there was not an "Anatomy Attitude Scale" that questions the views of medical school students in our country about anatomy. This study aims to develop a scale to reveal the attitudes of medical school students towards anatomy validly and reliably and to investigate anatomy attitudes of medical school students using this scale in a pilot administration. This study included 700 Term 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 students studying in the School of Medicine of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMU) in the academic year 2020-2021 who agreed to take part in the study. Of these students, 345 were recruited for factor analysis and 355 for investigation of attitudes. In the study, an Anatomy Attitude Scale was developed first in line with the literature, which consisted of 14 items and 3 subfactors, "Value of Anatomy", "Hating Anatomy", and "Time Allocated to Anatomy". The results of construct validity were also verified by confirmatory factor analysis. Then, the scale was administered to 355 students. The results obtained from the data showed that the students of ÇOMU Medical School were aware of the importance of anatomy as a fundamental medical science, and the physician candidates who intended to become a specialist in any branch in the future attributed more value to Anatomy. We believe that the "Anatomy Attitude Scale" we have developed as a result of this study will help shape medical education in our country.