Incorporating Clinical Examination Skills Into a Preclinical Anatomy Course: A Method for Facilitating Engagement and Interest

Clinical Anatomy · 2025-04-04

Anatomy instruction is enhanced when students are engaged and interested in course material, and the relevance of the subject matter to their academic success and professional careers is emphasized. We developed a learning activity for a pre-clinical anatomy course using the clinical skills of inspection and palpation of a cadaver donor to demonstrate the value of those skills in learning anatomy and to facilitate anatomical understanding in a format similar to that used in clinical practice. Students were instructed to inspect and palpate various anatomical structures and relationships on their donor cadavers to identify features that could help in recognizing potential abnormalities, understanding disease mechanisms, and learning the anatomical bases of certain medical interventions and surgical procedures. Using these techniques, a tumor mass involving the medial end of the clavicle was identified. Student interest was increased, which led to further study and subsequent pathological identification of the tumor as a rare osteochondroma. We found that the addition of inspection and palpation as methods for learning human anatomy in the dissection laboratory, methods not commonly used, facilitated both engagement and interest in a particular area of the subject. Students also developed a respect for their donors, viewing them as their first patients. In light of the diversity in lifestyles, medical conditions, and causes of death within donor populations, we believe the approach described here can contribute greatly to the value of human anatomy courses that use cadaver donors.

Cortical Organization and Higher Brain Functions

2024-05-28

Functional Organization of the Somatic Motor System

2024-05-28

Structure and Organization of the Nervous System

2024-05-28

Collaborative Preclinical/Clinical Efforts Aimed at Strengthening a Neurology Residency Program: Challenges, Activities and Outcomes

Medical Science Educator · 2024-10-15 · 1 citations

Recent trends in medical education have included efforts to better integrate traditionally preclinical content with subject matter included in the clinical years of the curriculum. The participation of clinical faculty in preclinical courses is well established; however, involvement of biomedical science faculty in resident education is less common. We describe here a project in which a basic science faculty member participated in a neurology residency program to address specific basic science knowledge weaknesses identified by the neurology department chair. We address issues and challenges associated with planning and implementation. Benefits to both the residents and the biomedical scientist are described.

A method for assessing student ability to apply anatomical knowledge within a traditional anatomy laboratory examination

Anatomical Sciences Education · 2024-04-24

Fidelity between teaching activities and assessment methods is an important goal of knowledge and performance evaluations in medical education. Ideally, assessment methods provide evidence of learning that reflects the types of knowledge described in the learning objectives of the course. The most reliable assessments involve the same or similar tasks as those used during the instructional components of the course. Our preclinical human anatomy course includes, in addition to traditional lecture and cadaver-based laboratory learning activities, a series of applied human anatomy learning activities intended to emphasize human anatomy as it is encountered in living human individuals. The learning activities involve psychomotor behaviors including inspection, palpation, and auscultation, techniques used in the physical examination, as well as other activities designed to emphasize anatomical structures and tissues as they may be found in patient populations. We describe here our method for measuring student success in learning human anatomy in this manner, highlighting the direct linkage between the learning activities and the assessment tasks. We describe our performance scoring method and how we include this data in the calculation of an anatomy examination grade. As an indicator of our success with this approach, we include performance scores for the applied anatomy questions included on the laboratory component of our unit examinations for two successive academic years. We conclude with summary comments from students regarding the applied anatomy learning activities and assessment approach and offer suggestions for addressing specific challenges associated with the use of these types of assessment methods.

Functional Organization of the Sensory Systems

2024-05-28

The Neuronal Environment

2024-05-28

Functional Organization of the Cranial Nerves

2024-05-28

Functional Organization of the Visceral Motor System

2024-05-28