The Use of Narrative Drawings to Improve the Understanding of Threshold Concepts in Pelvic Anatomy

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONIt is important for medical students to understand and retain threshold concepts in anatomy because knowledge of anatomical structures and relationships is relevant to patient care. As shown in current research, anatomy is best learned through visual demonstrations.AIMThe goal of this project is to determine whether presenting the threshold concepts related to the pelvis with narrative drawings will improve learning and retention.METHODS246 first year medical students enrolled in a regional anatomy course and second‐year medical students enrolled in a reproductive organ system course from the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine were invited to use learning modules that contain narrative drawing videos along with pre‐and post‐video questions at the beginning of their respective units. After the students complete the assessments, a survey will be emailed out to assess the perceptions of the narrative drawing learning modules. Likert scale questions (scored 0–100, strongly disagree‐strongly agree) will be used to evaluate the usefulness of these modules in comparison to traditional study resources. In addition to survey responses, data from the learning modules will be collected including how much time was spent on the narrative drawing videos and student's performance on the questions. Lastly, we will correlate student's exam scores related to pelvic anatomy to the analyzed variables described above to determine if a relationship exists between the amount of time spent on the modules and test scores using t‐test and regression analysis. This project is approved by the Oakland University IRB (project ID: 1109177).RESULTSCurrently, 47 of 246 (19%) students have completed the narrative drawing learning module. Preliminary results showed that students spent an average of 20.8 minutes on the module and scores on the post‐video questions improved by an average of 9.73% compared to pre‐video responses. Additional data is currently being collected and analyzed. Compared to the control group, students who used the learning modules are expected to perform better on their examination.CONCLUSIONThe results are expected to support the hypothesis that the use of narrative drawings will encourage interactive learning for medical students and will enhance the understanding of threshold concepts in pelvic anatomy. Overall, this study has the potential to help guide the adjustment of medical school curriculum to better meet the needs of students.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.