Anatomical theatre or full digitisation? Students' preferences in field of anatomy teaching.

Abstract

Background: For many years, the teaching of anatomy has been based on traditional forms of imparting knowledge, but innovative solutions are currently being implemented on a large scale around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic and distanced learning have influenced the development of new technologies in teaching.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted among medical students who studied anatomy in the year preceding the analysis when the restrictions related to the pandemic had been lifted. The questionnaire contained 10 questions with YES/NO answers and a modified 10-point Likert scale. The data was subjected to statistical analysis performed in R studio using the R programming language. 650 respondents were included in the analysis.

Results: Students assessed the modernisation of anatomy departments to be unsatisfactory; on a 10-point scale, the most common answer was 2, and the average was 2.69. At the same time, they assessed the accessibility of knowledge to be acceptable - median 6, with an average of 5.58. 75.38% of respondents did not use virtual reality technology, 75.69% did not use a 3D printer, and 92.5% did not work with a virtual anatomical table. The vast majority of students claimed that new technologies will be useful in their future clinical practice.

Conclusions: New technologies are still too rarely used in the teaching of anatomy, despite the increasing availability of such solutions and consensus among students as to the validity of implementing innovations in their future clinical practice. It seems reasonable to enable cooperation between traditional and modern forms of learning.