Abstract
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Recent changes to anatomy education across UK medical schools are thought to be contributing towards a lower proficiency in anatomical expertise amongst students. The introduction of alternative learning methods may help to overcome this. Prosections and 3D online anatomy resources are both used as alternative methods for learning anatomy, but it is not clear which of these methods provides a better outcome. The aim of this study was to compare students' learning of the anatomy of the hand and forearm using a functional Thiel prosection or a 3D online resource to see which method was associated with a better outcome on an anatomy quiz. The secondary aim was to see which of these methods was preferred by students. A cohort of 37 medical students at the University of Dundee participated in this crossover study. Group A learnt about the anterior compartment of the hand and forearm using the prosection followed by taking an appropriate quiz. They then used the 3D online resource to learn about the posterior compartment before again completing a relevant quiz. Group B carried out the study in reverse, using the prosection to learn about the posterior compartment and the 3D online resource to learn about the anterior compartment, each followed by completing the relevant quiz. All participants then completed a questionnaire about each of the learning methods. The results showed no significant difference in quiz performance after using the Thiel prosection compared to using the 3D online resource (p>0.05). Feedback from questionnaires suggested that the majority of participants preferred using the prosection to learn functional anatomy. Limitations of this study include the small sample size and the type of assessment method used. The results of this study were inconclusive and further studies are required to determine which resource is a better tool for learning anatomy.
Highlights
Human anatomy is regarded as a fundamental and integral part of any medical education course (Turney 2007; Papa et al 2013) but the amount of anatomy teaching in medical schools has been in decline for a number of years (McKeown et al 2003).The ‘traditional’ medical curriculum, which typically involved several years of basic science and anatomy teaching prior to clinical experience, has largely been replaced by a more integrated teaching format, including PBL/CBL (Problem/Cased-Based Learning) (Gogalniceanu et al 2009)
Cadaveric dissection is being used less across medical schools in the UK (Dissabandara et al 2015). This is partly due to a reduction in the number of cadavers nationally and the logistical difficulties of providing dissection teaching, and that it is a less viable teaching option in this faster-paced, more clinically-driven curriculum (Dissabandara et al 2015). Such changes to anatomy teaching seem not without fault; there was an increase in the number of claims associated with ‘anatomical error’ to the Medical Defence Union between 1995 and 2000 (Dissabandara et al 2015) and some surgeons believe that new medical school graduates possess less anatomical knowledge compared to previous students who were taught primarily through dissection (Cottam 1999)
This study has shown that students perform well on an anatomy quiz after using either a Thiel prosection or a 3D online resource as learning methods
Summary
Human anatomy is regarded as a fundamental and integral part of any medical education course (Turney 2007; Papa et al 2013) but the amount of anatomy teaching in medical schools has been in decline for a number of years (McKeown et al 2003).The ‘traditional’ medical curriculum, which typically involved several years of basic science and anatomy teaching prior to clinical experience, has largely been replaced by a more integrated teaching format, including PBL/CBL (Problem/Cased-Based Learning) (Gogalniceanu et al 2009). Cadaveric dissection is being used less across medical schools in the UK (Dissabandara et al 2015) This is partly due to a reduction in the number of cadavers nationally and the logistical difficulties of providing dissection teaching, and that it is a less viable teaching option in this faster-paced, more clinically-driven curriculum (Dissabandara et al 2015). Such changes to anatomy teaching seem not without fault; there was an increase in the number of claims associated with ‘anatomical error’ to the Medical Defence Union between 1995 and 2000 (Dissabandara et al 2015) and some surgeons believe that new medical school graduates possess less anatomical knowledge compared to previous students who were taught primarily through dissection (Cottam 1999). Ghosh (2016) goes further and claims that dissection must be reinstated as the core method of learning anatomy to ensure safe medical practice
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