Anxiety, emotions, and thoughts of veterinary medicine students during their first visit to the dissection room

Abstract

The use of cadavers is essential for veterinary anatomy learning. However, facing an animal corpse can be stressful for veterinary students because of their empathy toward animals. The objective of this study was to evaluate veterinary medicine students' emotions, feelings, and anxiety levels related to practicals with dog cadavers. Two questionnaires were administered to 1st year students (n = 168) at CEU Cardenal Herrera University in Valencia (Spain) before and after their first practical session with cadavers. The application of State–Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires showed that “state anxiety” decreased significantly (p < 0.05), from a score of 14.8 before the practical to 10.4 after, and that female students showed higher but not significantly different levels than males. Most (64%) of the students were not willing to donate the bodies of their pets, and those students were more stressed before the practical than their peers, although their anxiety levels significantly decreased by the end of the session. The majority of the students answered positively about emotions, such as feeling calm, safe, not nervous, relaxed and not worried before the practical, and this increased significantly to more than 80% by the end of the session. The visualization of educational videos prior to the session was evaluated positively by students. These results agree with those reported in other health science disciplines, showing that students face practical sessions with corpses in a similar way and suggesting that the use of videos can help decrease anxiety and enhance their learning experience.

How do veterinary students perceive and prepare for compulsory slaughterhouse visits?

“…Peer and tutor‐student discussions have been described as methods to reduce stress on medical students prior to medical dissection courses 51 . Our results suggest that videos may also improve both the learning and emotional aspects of a slaughterhouse visit, which is supported by a recent study in which videos effectively reduced anxiety scores and improved emotional preparedness of veterinary students prior to anatomy teaching 43 …”

“…40,41 Although student anxiety around slaughterhouse visits was reported in our study, the slaughterhouse is not the only learning environment veterinary students encounter that may lead to negative emotions. The surgical environment, 42 the dissection room 43 and EMS 14 can all be a source of anxiety and stress. In line with the results of this study, lack of time to prepare, unclear expectations and lack of self-confidence were all sighted as sources of negative emotions in these other environments.…”

“…51 Our results suggest that videos may also improve both the learning and emotional aspects of a slaughterhouse visit, which is supported by a recent study in which videos effectively reduced anxiety scores and improved emotional preparedness of veterinary students prior to anatomy teaching. 43 The participants in this survey were more likely to have experience with traditional educational activities, such as lectures and videos, compared to more novel technologies such as VR. At both the RVC and the SBOHVM, the VR slaughterhouse tour is only available to final-year students, which may somewhat explain these results.…”

Application of Blended Learning to Veterinary Gross Anatomy Practical Sessions: Students’ Perceptions of Their Learning Experience and Academic Outcomes

“…In the preparation of the sessions, the use of videos is very important. Video as a support material for anatomy lectures is considered a very useful resource in a condensed curriculum scenario [36,37], and we have shown that their use can help decrease anxiety and enhance students' learning experience [38]. In our study, students considered these videos as important elements in the preparation of the practicals, although, in some cases, students requested more detailed documents.…”

Conditioned Canine Cadavers for Near-Natural Interprofessional Veterinary and Human Surgery Training

“…The use of cadavers has primarily been in anatomy and surgical education. Both medical and veterinary students, as well as educators, are emotionally affected by the use of cadavers [2][3][4][5]. In medical education, the use of cadavers and the resulting emotions are driven by a range of ethical issues [3] that are currently much less pronounced in veterinary education [4].…”