Anatomical Sciences Education最新文献

The American Association for Anatomy recently charged a task force with updating and expanding upon best practices and recommendations for human body donation programs. The task force comprised American Association for Anatomy members with specific and detailed knowledge about the legal, ethical, and procedural operations of body donation programs in the United States. The task force developed both foundational and aspirational recommendations. These recommendations emphasize the importance of prioritizing the ethical treatment of all body donors across all education and research sectors. Programs must adhere to several principles to operate an ethical body donation program, the foundation of which is informed consent. The policies and procedures of donation programs must clearly and transparently describe their core operational practices including outreach, registration, custody tracking, use, disposition, and memorialization. Such programs should be governed by a diverse oversight committee whose members are not directly responsible for the program's daily operations. These standards require that all body donation programs follow all national, state, and local laws in the program's jurisdiction. The following recommendations for body donation programs were approved by the Board of Directors of the American Association for Anatomy in 2024 and were conceived as a living document intended to be periodically modified and updated as the ethos and legislation of body donations evolve. Given the importance of these recommendations, translations of this document into Chinese and Spanish are available as supplementary materials S2 and S3.

The first experience of medical students in the dissecting room (DR) is a challenging event. Few data exist around whether or how culturally appropriate support is required in the DR for students from ethnic minorities. This pilot study explored Pasifika (peoples with heritage from the Pacific Islands) students' first experience of the DR and exposure to body donors to explore cultural perspectives around this event. Participants were second year Pasifika medical students with no prior engagement with body donors. Following a first exposure to body donors, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted. Questioning explored how Pasifika students experienced initial DR engagement in regard to Pasifika culture and cultural safety. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically. Eight Pasifika students were interviewed (ages 18–32 years, mean 21.3 years, five females); mean interview duration 24.5 min. Four themes were identified: cultural observations, student behaviors, cultural safety, and cultural comfort. Dominant messages included the cultural challenges presented by this event, conformity of cultural behavior, identification of cultural safety being appropriate, and illumination of potential cultural support strategies. Current mechanisms supporting cultural safety were identified as adequate, which juxtaposed against behavior where students could not act in a culturally authentic manner. Suggestions were made around improving cultural comfort, such as the presence of elders or Christian-focused elements such as prayer. Enhanced cultural support could increase cultural comfort for the initial DR and body donor experience of Pasifika students, which may facilitate increased cultural knowledge and promote cultural diversity within the medical student cohort.

Anatomy forms the foundation for the training and execution of routine surgical procedures. However, a gap persists in effectively bridging anatomical knowledge with the confident performance of procedures. Virtual simulation (VS) techniques, based on experiential and situated learning theory, hold promise in addressing this challenge. Apicoectomy, a procedure involving root apex resection to preserve a tooth, requires a blend of regional and dental anatomy knowledge, making it an ideal model for assessing the effectiveness of VS. This prospective cohort study evaluated primarily the enhancement of incorporating VS training in the preclinical skill training of apicoectomy for undergraduate dental students, compared to relying solely on traditional methods. VS training includes the simulated dissection process, patient examination, and apicoectomy based on graphically synthesized virtual models. Secondly, the study investigated the influence of exposure to VS training on students' confidence and satisfaction. The training was divided into three progressive levels aligned with students' cognitive processes, employing Miller's competence learning framework. Participants were categorized into the control group (CG) (n = 214) and VS training group (VSTG) (n = 220) based on their classes. The results demonstrated that VSTG showed significantly greater training enhancement (VSTG: 7.14 ± 1.74; CG: 6.57 ± 2.02, p = 0.002) and higher confidence levels (VSTG: 2.94 ± 0.13; CG: 2.69 ± 0.13, p < 0.001), along with greater satisfaction with the training compared to the CG (VSTG: 3.70 ± 0.18; CG: 3.20 ± 0.17, p < 0.001). In conclusion, VS proves to be a valuable adjunct for enhancing procedural skill training in surgical procedures.

The traditional approach of using PowerPoint (PPT) presentations in medical imaging theory classes hinders the spatial thinking ability of most students. Consequently, the learning outcomes are often unsatisfactory. This article proposes a naked eye three-dimensional (3D) medical imaging teaching assistant app based on augmented reality (AR) technology to enhance learning interest, teaching interaction, and effectiveness. The control group consisted of 50 undergraduate students from the 2018 clinical medicine major who receive traditional teaching, while the experimental group includes 52 undergraduate students from the 2019 cohort who utilize an AR-based naked eye 3D teaching assistant app in addition to traditional teaching methods. Based on Bloom's cognitive learning taxonomy (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create), corresponding teaching curricula and assessment methods were designed in order to achieve more in-depth learning of the curriculum. The evaluation of the teaching effectiveness between the two groups relied on exam scores and student satisfaction questionnaires, with statistical analyses conducted using t-test and Mann–Whitney U-test in SPSS. The experimental group and control group showed statistically significant differences in the theoretical examination scores (62.06 ± 3.06 vs. 59.82 ± 3.38), practical testing scores (22.90 ± 2.35 vs. 21.06 ± 2.65), and total scores (84.96 ± 4.58 vs. 80.88 ± 6.01). Likert scores showed the experimental group scored significantly higher in enjoyment, satisfaction, participation, efficiency, and understanding. They also reported high convenience scores for the app and desired continued use. The naked eye 3D teaching assistant system is an innovative and effective teaching model for undergraduate medical imaging education, enhancing student interest, student interaction, and teaching effectiveness and promising future applications.

Metacognition includes the processes that learners use to plan, monitor, and assess their learning and is tied to academic performance and growth-oriented attitudes toward learning. Learning anatomy presents challenges to learners at all levels, and for many, necessitates a change in learning strategies and metacognitive awareness. We sought to examine whether structured metacognitive training situated in an undergraduate anatomy course could improve these skills. At the beginning and end of the course, students completed the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and several short free response questions. Individually matched pre-and post-course MAI scores were compared using paired-sample t-tests. The authors conducted a directed content analysis for the free response questions using the “knowledge of cognition” (KC) and “regulation of cognition” (RC) domains and their associated subcategories. All three KC subcategories showed statistically significant increases from pre- to post-course questionnaires. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Only two of five RC subcategories showed significant differences between pre- and post-course questionnaires: Information Management strategies and Evaluation. Directed content analysis revealed that students displayed an increase in metacognitive knowledge, particularly in the KC domain. Although RC developed for some learners, others also had insightful comments about challenges in this area—particularly regarding planning, motivation, and focus while learning independently. These results show that metacognitive training in an undergraduate anatomy course can improve students' metacognitive awareness. However, more targeted, specific strategies may be useful to develop students' metacognitive regulation.

Anatomy is essential for understanding healthy and disease states as well as for the successful completion of clinical clerkships and board examinations. This project provided structured workshops aimed to review anatomical concepts for clerkships and Step 1 and provided a means for medical students to assess their anatomical knowledge. We provided six optional anatomy workshops, in which students (1) took a pre-session quiz, (2) faculty reviewed key anatomy of a particular system (e.g., musculoskeletal), (3) students worked through clinical cases in small groups, and (4) students took a post-session quiz and responded to a post-session survey to rate satisfaction of session content and delivery on a five-point Likert scale. One session was excluded due to small sample size (n = 2). Results from five workshops, including brachial plexus, musculoskeletal, pelvic, gastrointestinal, and head and neck anatomy, showed that students performed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) better on the post-session quizzes compared to pre-session quizzes in all sessions. Post-session survey results indicated that students were satisfied with session content and facilitation, would attend future workshops, and would use session materials to study for Step 1. Based on these short-term benefits of the sessions, we plan to continue offering monthly workshops to medical students to increase knowledge retention of key anatomical concepts and increase preparedness for clerkships and Step 1. Future studies will longitudinally follow up with students post-Step 1 and clerkships to determine the long-term benefits of offering these workshops.