Revisiting Anatomy through Clinically Focused Teaching Sessions during Surgery Postings

The under-graduate MBBS students are unable to retain and apply their basic sciences knowledge in their clinical postings. This study was planned to revisit anatomy through clinically focused anatomy teaching sessions for final-year MBBS students during their surgery postings.

To increase the ability of the MBBS graduates to apply their anatomy knowledge in the clinical context.

In this quasi-experimental study, four interactive teaching sessions were conducted by faculty members of anatomy department for the final-year MBBS students during their surgery clinical posting. The learning outcomes were measured by comparing the pre and post-test scores of the students. The perceptions of the students and teaching faculty were evaluated with the help of a feedback questionnaire and focus group discussions at the completion of the sessions.

A total of 46 (92%) final-year MBBS students posted in the surgery department participated in the study. A comparison of the mean pre-test scores (22.43 ± 6.18) and the post-test scores (36.89 ± 6.62) showed a statistically significant improvement (p < 0.0001). Most of the students (91.3%) felt the anatomy teaching sessions were beneficial to them in terms of clearing their concepts of surgical anatomy and its application in their clinical posting. All faculty members showed a positive and optimistic approach to developing more such integrated teaching sessions.

The introduction of anatomy teaching sessions for final-year students significantly improved their application of basic sciences knowledge in clinical context. It can henceforth be adopted for revising the other basic sciences across all clinical postings.