Integrating Clinical Education into the Anatomy Curriculum; The Advantages of Soft Preservation Techniques

Abstract

Practitioners and educators continually evaluate alternative teaching methodologies to increase the learning of anatomical and clinical based skills. Traditionally, anatomy and clinical skills are taught separately to students in both physical and occupational therapy curricula. Formaldehyde preservation is seen as the primary embalming methodology within anatomical education but has been described as lacking when utilized within educational institutions. This study aimed to evaluate the integration of clinical skills into anatomical education using an alternative preservation technique called Imperial College London‐ Soft Preservation (ICL‐SP).Physical and occupational therapy completing the Musculoskeletal Anatomy course were presented with donors preserved with either formaldehyde or ICP‐SP. The students were tasked with traditional dissection and with performing clinical tests on the different donors followed by the administration of a questionnaire. The inclusion of ICL‐SP donors showed there was a better model for the representation of the vascular system and the nervous system without showing significant deficits in any other categories when compared to formaldehyde. The integration of clinical skills and anatomical curriculum presented increased student perceived understanding of associated anatomy (p < 0.05), gave better understanding of how anatomy is important to their professions (p < 0.05) and increased motivation to learn anatomy (p < 0.05). Students noted ICL‐SP was more beneficial forclinical skill procedures (Lachman's test: p < 0.05; Valgus Stress Test of the Elbow: p < 0.05). In conclusion, the integration of clinical skills into anatomical education can potentially provide clinicians with higher confidence performing clinical skills and may be complemented by the utilization of the new ICL‐SP methodology. Ethical approval was granted by the Ohio State University Institutional Review Board under log number 2021E0469.