scholarly journals ’Knowing everything and yet nothing about her’: medical students’ reflections on their experience of the dissection room

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kassam ◽  
Robbie Duschinsky ◽  
Cecilia Brassett ◽  
Stephen Barclay

Anatomy education by cadaveric dissection teaches medical students not only the formal curriculum in human anatomy, but also a ‘hidden curriculum’ whereby they learn the attitudes, identities and behaviours expected of doctors. While dissection has been investigated as a challenge to and training in emotional regulation, little attention has been paid hitherto to the forms of medical knowledge and identity which students encounter and develop in the dissection room. This study analyses a corpus of 119 tributes written by three consecutive cohorts of first-year medical students at a university to their cadaveric donors. We employ a Foucauldian discourse analysis methodology, seeking to elucidate the features of the subject position, the narrative ‘I’ or ‘we’ of the tributes, and the modes of knowledge which operate between that subject position and its object, the donor. We observe that students find themselves in a transitional state between personal and scientific modes of knowledge of the human, which correspond to different models of the subject position occupied by the student. While in many tributes these modes exist in an uneasy disjunction, others employ creative reflection to suggest new modes of knowledge and identity which may inform ethical practice.

Author(s):  
I.R. Yusupov ◽  
F.Kh. Galimov ◽  
V.A. Ivanov

The article deals with the problem of the formation of professional thinking of medical students. It describes and substantiates the possibility of the combined use of modern educational technologies — the method of cases and edutainment in the framework of physical education in order to form the subject position of students and improve the quality of the educational process.


Author(s):  
Kislay Kumar ◽  
Devesh Kumar ◽  
Pooja T. Pandey ◽  
Divya .

Background: tress at any stage of life virtually produces several respiratory limitations and reduces tolerance to physical efforts, sometimes leading to pulmonary diseases in individuals. Various yoga and Pranayama like Kapalbhati and Nadi-sodhan involves powerful strokes of exhalation, which trains the subject to make full use of diaphragm and abdominal muscles.Methods: This study is performed on 1st yr. medical students whose stress level is in higher side due to academic burden. 55 medical students were selected as participants through counseling and were divided into Yoga group (n= 27) and control group (n=28). Pulmonary functions of subjects were tested using Pony FX advanced desktop spirometer manufactured by Cosmed. Yoga is performed 1 hr/day for 6 days /week for 12 weeks by yoga group.Results: Pulmonary functions tested in Yoga and control group were FVC, FEV1, PEF and FVC/FEV1. There were significant improvements in pulmonary functions in yoga group. In Yoga group (FVC- 5.8% increases, FEV1- 5.2% increase, PEF- 34% increase and FVC/FEV1- 3.15% increase). In control group also, all parameters increased but P value was not significant.Conclusions: This study concludes that practicing Yoga has shown a significant improvement on pulmonary functions in 1st year medical students.


1993 ◽  
Vol 264 (6) ◽  
pp. S1
Author(s):  
M F Crass ◽  
D S Hodges

A unique clinical correlation in gastroenterology for first-year medical students is described. This interactive demonstration is conducted in a clinical setting and is designed to introduce the student to a broad range of topics in clinical gastroenterology while complementing lecture material in gastrointestinal (GI) physiology. Faculty and fellows of the Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center present minilectures and demonstrations at five different stations held in endoscopy rooms of the GI Diagnostic Center (GI Lab). The first-year class is divided into groups of 20 students or less. Each group visits a given station for 30 min, and each station has a specific topic. The topics are motility studies, esophagogastroduodenoscopy, gastric analysis, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy. At each station, physicians pose clinical questions related to the students' understanding of GI physiology and, in turn, respond to students' questions. For students who have been learning basic concepts of GI physiology, this clinical demonstration offers a more meaningful clinical correlation than standard clinical lectures could afford. In addition, the demonstration brings enhanced interest and enthusiasm for the subject matter.


Author(s):  
Romy Biswas ◽  
Raktim Bandyopadhyay

Background: Cadaver dissection is mandatory for medical education. The cadaver dissection develops the knowledge and skill of the students regarding human anatomy to understand and accomplish the necessity of medical education and clinics in future. This study was conducted to assess the attitude and emotional reactions of first year Medical students to the dissecting cadavers.Methods: The attitude and opinion of students on cadaver dissection was assessed by a modified structured pretested questionnaire after one week of dissection class among all first year medical students by cross-sectional design.Results: Males and females were in the ratio of 7:3.88.3% complied that active involvement is necessary but only 10.9% told that models or virtual program could replace dissection. Altogether 49.6%% had experienced the excitement, 15.3% had experienced headache and sweating. 87.6%% were curious about cadaver dissection and 84.7 %were interested; however 8% had negative feelings towards dead body.Conclusions: Majority of students opined cadaver dissection was the best method for learning and understanding Human anatomy. Pre-education sessions and interaction with the teacher’s prior dissection will help to remove the anxiety among students and will enable them to get involved in their dissection classes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 031-034
Author(s):  
Thangarasu Rajan ◽  
Atul M Bage

Abstract Background and aims: The routine method of didactic lecture followed by dissection does not help for long-term retention of the subject, anatomy amongst medical students. The impact of clinical anatomy knowledge in medical profession is large and there is an absolute lack of positive reception in this regard amongst student community. Teaching methods play an important role to create interest and to make students appreciate the subject better. Studies evaluating different modes of teaching anatomy are scarce. The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of different modes of anatomy teaching among medical students. Materials and methods: First year medical students were divided randomly into three groups and different modes of teaching anatomy like blackboard and chalk, audio/visual and using plastic models were compared by examination based assessment. The data of multiple groups were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, followed by the Newman–Keuls multiple comparison test (PRISM Graph pad, version 4; Graph Pad Software, Inc., San Diego, CA). A P value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: No single method is effective in increasing the performance of both theory and practical examination across different topics and so a suitable combination of the different modes for a particular topic in anatomy teaching should be framed.


Author(s):  
Guadalupe Elizabeth Morales-Martinez ◽  
Alberto Manuel Ángeles Castellanos ◽  
Víctor Hugo Ibarra Ramírez ◽  
Magaly Iveth Mancera Rangel

This article illustrates the application of the Chronometric Constructive Cognitive Learning Evaluation Model to measure the structural, organizational, and temporal properties of the anatomical knowledge schemata acquired by 52 first-year medical students enrolled for a second time in an anatomy course. The participants took part in a mental representation experiment as a part of which they carried out a conceptual definition task involving anatomy concepts based on the Natural Semantic Networks (NSN) technique. A computational simulation was performed on the NSN data, after which the students took part in a semantic priming experiment involving a lexical decision task which required them to classify words related or unrelated to their anatomy schema as word/non-word. Findings revealed that, although students stored the anatomy information in their memory, they struggled to structure, consolidate, and retrieve this information from their memory. These findings suggest that students who did not get the passing grade in anatomy course may struggle with integrating and consolidating pertinent information. Thus, results showed that the constructive-chronometric cognitive approach is useful to measure the properties of schemes medical students developed on the anatomy topic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-354
Author(s):  
Julia Eckel ◽  
Olga Zavaritskaya ◽  
Katrin Schüttpelz-Brauns ◽  
Rudolf Schubert

Recently, medical students’ scientific thinking skills have been identified as an important issue in medical education. Scientific thinking cannot be imparted in conventional lectures, but rather requires actively involving students. We modified a practical course in physiology. A study was designed to test whether the new course fosters scientific thinking without impairing the transfer of physiological knowledge. The study group consisted of 226 first-year medical students at the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University. Written consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants. The group was then randomly divided into two groups (traditional vs. modified course). The subject of both courses was a laboratory experiment in skeletal muscle physiology. In the traditional course, the students addressed topics already presented in lectures. In the modified course, students dealt with the same topics as in the traditional course, but the experiment was expanded to include one issue not taught before. When working on this issue, the students were instructed in scientific thinking. All participants filled out a questionnaire with 15 multiple-choice questions addressing the physiological subject matter and four open-ended questions addressing the criteria of scientific methodology. Physiological knowledge in both groups did not differ [ F(1) = 2.08, P = 0.15]. Scores in scientific thinking in the modified course were higher (mean = 4.20, SD = 1.89) than in the traditional course (mean = 2.04, SD = 1.91) with F(1) = 70.69, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.24 (large effect). Our study demonstrates that small adjustments to courses in medical education can promote scientific thinking without impairing knowledge transfer.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-103
Author(s):  
Gretchen Slover

Background: This research was birthed in 2017 during a trip to Lusaka, Zambia, with the purpose of offering fourth-year, medical students attending the University of Zambia, School of Medicine, lectures on psychology topics as part of their clinical studies.  Students were also offered brief therapy sessions where they could process thoughts and feelings causing them internal struggles.  The subject of offering counseling on a regular basis was randomly discussed with the students.  From these discussions the need for this research became evident, with the intent of becoming the launching pad to brainstorm the most effective ways of developing a plan to offer counseling services for all medical students attending the University of Zambia School of Medicine. Methods: An-experimental research design, consisting of completion of a 12-item questionnaire administered by paper and pen. The inclusion criteria were the fourth year, medical students attending the University of Zambia, School of Medicine. Results:  The student responses revealed that most of them had little to no experience with counseling services, but a strong desire for them. Discussion: The goal of this study was to simply establish a need for an on-campus counseling service, the need of which has been established by the very students who would benefit.  With the acceptance of this need, the future plan is to explore the different ways in which this need can be fulfilled with minimal costs to the Medical School Program. Conclusion:  This study is the first step towards identifying the needs of the medical students and sets the ground-work for further research into the specific areas of need and mental health challenges.  More specificity in the area of demographics of students will produce a more comprehensive picture of the areas of concentration for the therapists offering services.


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