Seven questions for a student's donor: Evaluation of a fictional conversation lends insight into professional identity formation in medical students

Abstract

Reflection exercises have been used within anatomy education to evaluate empathy, humanism, and professionalism. A typical reflection exercise consists of directed prompts to guide the student's reflection as it relates to the experience and/or research question. The aim of this study was to utilize reflections through an open-ended format to enable students to explore their experience participating in donor dissection as they form their professional identity. The “Seven Questions” exercise was developed to create an imaginary discourse between the medical student and their donor. Students were prompted to provide seven questions they would like to ask their donor, if still living, and provide a 2–3 sentence explanation as to their interest, meaning, and/or purpose of each question. Submissions (n = 418) were evaluated using thematic analysis and four themes were identified: body donation, career development, patient history, and donor gestalt. The theme of body donation included questions specific to the decision to donate one's body for medical education, sharing one's decision with family and electing educational vs. organ donation. The career development theme included questions focused on the donor's previous experience with physicians, hesitation regarding student dissection, and advice for the student dissector. The third theme, patient history, included inquiries related to social history, review of systems, and family history. The final theme of donor gestalt focused on the donor's self-care and legacy. Student responses suggest that dissection and the donor experience organically support students modeling physician behaviors and should be considered as an educational opportunity to aid in developing physician identity.