Medical Students Perception of Current Undergraduate Anatomy Teaching

SUMMARY: Anatomy it is one of the basic sciences in medical schools where it takes part in the first 3 years of the teaching curriculum. Aim of this survey is to explore the perception of medical students in undergraduate level to anatomy teaching in different medical schools and identify the weakness points and area which could help in improvement the teaching process with better outcomes. This is a prospective multi center study, conducted between May 2018 to August 2018 on 313 medical students in their internship year and 6th year of medical school. Questionnaire was sent to students taking into consideration the importance of protecting the students privacy. The questionnaire was developed after thorough review of the literature and its items were chosen following consultation with senior medical colleagues and educationalists . The questionnaire was created using 8-item liker scale so as to enforce an answer and avoid neutral answer. Out of 313 students: 212 were female students (67.7 %) and 101 (32.3 %) were males. 123 students (39.3 %) favored the combination of cadaveric dissection and multimedia as best teaching methods. Most students thought that the classic methods of teaching may not be very helpful in understanding the radiological images and laparoscopic intra-operative views. Most students suggested that engaging surgeons in anatomy teaching may improve their clinical knowledge in Anatomy. Our results showed that the approach of teaching could be improved by including combination of multiple techniques specially cadaveric dissection and multimedia sessions. The results also encouraged medical schools to utilize surgeons more often to teach anatomy.