Anatomy education in regional Australia: Ways to improve the outcome

Objectives: The time devoted to gross anatomy education has steadily declined worldwide. In the present study, we evaluated students’ perception and responses to a survey on anatomy education to determine whether the allotted time is adequate and whether the cadaver dissection laboratory is perceived to be meaningful.
Methods: The program in this study covers the compulsory head and neck gross anatomy material for 2^nd year undergraduate students in the Bachelor of Dental Science degree at Charles Sturt University (Australia). To gauge student experiences of anatomy education, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 2014 -2015 during semester 1 after informed consent received by participating students. The questionnaire comprised questions on the students’ anatomy education objectives, the way of teaching, the time adequacy to anatomy lecture, tutorial and laboratory work, and the usefulness of cadaver dissection. The students were answered the questionnaire anonymously with yes or no or 5-point Likert scale responses according to the type of question. Student’s perceptions of learning anatomy through lectures were compared with other delivery format of tutorial using quizzes, anatomy lab through prosection or dissection. SPSS (Version 21.0) was used to analyzed the data, and statistical significance was set at 0.05.
Results: The frequencies of responses of students were shown the basis of demographic variables including gender, age and academic background. About 62.5% students with a prior university degree and 37.5% with no prior university degree participated in this study. Females showed more concerns about the smell than males (55.6% vs 44.4%). The results of the student perception survey showed significant number of responses (%) for learning anatomy via prosected study materials than lecture, tutorial or quizzes. Whereas assessable quizzes and private study with mentor and full two session course showed more responses than non-assessable quizzes, private study without mentor and one session anatomy course in undergraduate dentistry Head and Neck Anatomy courses.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that learning via prosected study materials acts as a powerful tool to focus student attention and direct student learning in head and neck anatomy.