Medical students perception on anatomy knowledge relevance and retention during clerkship

Abstract

Introduction: Sufficient knowledge of anatomy is crucial for safe and efficient clinical practice. The majority of students in the traditional, non-problem based learning curricula found anatomy taught to them in the preclinical phase irrelevant to their clinical practice. Aim: This is a cross-sectional study aiming to investigate senior medical students' perception on anatomy taught in our hybrid problem based learning curriculum, and to measure anatomy knowledge retention during clerkship. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire and 10 validated multiple choice questions were used. 131 students from the 5 th year and 6 th years were included. Results: Around half of the students in each cohort appreciate the importance of knowing detailed contents of anatomy subject for the effective treatment of most medical problems. Two thirds believe that knowledge of anatomy is the most important to be a good physician, and its application to clinical practice should be reinforced early in medical education. However, two thirds have reported that anatomy knowledge fades away by the time they reach the clinical phase. This was supported by the results of the anatomy exam questions where the mean of the grades was 3.81 and 3.15 out of 10 among the 5 th year and 6 th years respectively. There was no significant difference between the two cohorts (P > 0.05), however, grades of female students were significantly higher (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Senior medical students appreciate the importance and relevance of anatomy knowledge received in our hybrid problem based learning curriculum to their clinical practice. However, there is considerable loss in anatomy knowledge during clerkship. We recommend vertical integration of anatomy from the first year through the clerkship and into specialist training, to improve clinically relevant anatomical knowledge retention. Tailored anatomy courses which are relevant to different specialities, could be conducted during clerkship to enhance more integration between basic and clinical fields.

Medical Students Knowledge About Clinical Importance and Effective Teaching Methods of Anatomy

“…On the other hand, the results of Nabil et al demonstrated that 68% of the students strongly agreed about the importance of anatomy knowledge for their future role as physicians (25). This discrepancy in the current study between clinical and preclinical students' attitude about clinical significant of anatomy may have resulted from the insufficiency of anatomy knowledge in junior students.…”

“…Medical students spend their first 2.5 years at the beginning of medical education on studying basic sciences, such as anatomy before being involved in their clinical clerkship (25). Anatomy has recently been undergoing some changes in medical schools of different universities, according to the demands of modern medical practice (26).…”

Clinicians’ and Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes Regarding the Anatomical Knowledge of Medical Students

“…Anatomy is the cornerstone of medical education, providing a background knowledge that is essential for all medical careers. 17 In our study, clinicians and students showed moderately high positive attitudes towards anatomical knowledge with a mean score of 31.4 (±3.4) and 30.7 (±4.4), respectively, representing 76.7% to 78.3%. Besides, there was no statistically significant difference between males and females in terms of their attitude towards anatomical knowledge among the two study populations.…”

Effect on Academic Performance by Learning Online Through 3d Anatomy Atlas Versus 2d Presentations

“…Although these resources are indispensable to gain knowledge, studies show that 3D online atlases could further aid to develop concepts of anatomical relations. 7,8 Moreover, learners less adept in spatial interpretation find it difficult to learn solely from two-dimensional resources like text books 4 . Plastic models are a good option to study anatomy in 3D, however, good quality and detailed versions of these are expensive and have limited availability.…”