Facilitating OT and PT Graduate Student Laboratory Participation, Preparedness, and Professionalism in a Compressed, Intensive Gross Anatomy Dissection Course Series

Abstract

Adjusting to the rigors and pace of a graduate health professional program can be a challenge for both new graduate students and their instructors. At our university, students in the Masters in Occupational Therapy (MOT) and Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT) programs take a Human Gross Anatomy Lecture and Dissection Laboratory course series in two six‐week sessions in the first semester of their first year. For many students, this course series is their first introduction to graduate level education. Each week, students attend 9‐hours of lecture and 8‐hours of cadaver dissection lab. For lab dissections, students of both programs are together in groups of 4‐6 students per cadaver. The fast pace of this course necessitates that students prepare and participate in each day's dissection and act collegially toward their inter‐professional lab partners. To achieve these goals, I devised a method to facilitate student's active participation in their learning by guiding their pre‐lab study and outlining lab group interactions. This method involves defining and scripting five areas of participation/collegiality, promoting equal participation by rotating dissection lab roles, and assigning a pre‐lab “homework” assignment. At the end of each course in the series, students may evaluate their group‐mates in these five areas. The instructors also evaluated each student. Overall, having scripted and expressly written expectations of active participation as well as collegial and professional interactions through guided preparation enhanced students' experiences, learning, and professional interactions in the Human Anatomy Dissection Laboratory.