Practices of Makerere University students during anatomy dissection

Abstract

Background: The knowledge, skills and practices medical students acquire during gross anatomy dissection are fundamental to the learning of human anatomy and eventual practice of medicine. The changes in the curriculum and the global concerns about how students acquire their anatomical skills and knowledge, made it important to find out what students in our low resource settings do in the anatomy dissection room. Methods : This was a cross-sectional descriptive survey with a qualitative component on two cohorts of 305-second year health professional students on what they do during anatomy dissection practical. Results: The overall response rate was 26.9%. Of the 82 respondents, 35 (42.7%) reported that they only observed the dissection, 25 (31.7%) read the manuals, 20 (24.4%) had actual hands on dissection and one (1.2%) had never dissected. Significantly less male students read the manuals as opposed to doing the hands on dissection (0.18, P=0.0007). The interviews highlighted some of the reasons behind the students preferred roles. Conclusion: The students’ responses highlight differences between institutional expectations of dissection and the actual student practices. Specific roles like reading the manual and dissecting show significant sexual bias. There is a need to examine of the institutional definition of dissection in relation to its low resource settings.