Perception to dissection among undergraduate students in a Nigerian medical school

Abstract

Cadaveric dissection has always been an integral part of undergraduate medical education. In recent times, this traditional method of anatomy education has either been relegated or replaced by other modes of teaching. We used a structured questionnaire with Likert-scale questions ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree on the quality of the cadavers, state of the dissection room, emotional impact of dissection, anxiety, alternatives to dissection and supervision of dissection classes by lecturers. This study was carried out among 30 second- and 40 third-year medical students of the Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Majority of the students strongly disagree with the notion of the cadaver as frightening but also deemed the cadaver a stressor. Majority of the respondents (65.7%) agreed that the preservative used on the cadaver causes eye irritation. The quality of the cadaver used for dissection matters to a majority of the students and 51.4% considered the dissection room stressful. There was no overwhelming support for the replacement of dissection with computer assisted learning (CAL) multimedia while most favoured the combination of both methods. A good number of the students supported lecturer’s supervision of dissection classes. The present findings demonstrate that though students find dissection stressful, they also find it very critical to the study of anatomy. There is need to establish a body bequest program in the department to facilitate the acquisition of cadavers. Traditional dissection should also be complemented with the use of CAL to promote students’ comprehension.

Keywords: Cadaver, anatomy, body bequest, dissection