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Spatial ability is an important factor in learning anatomy. Students with high scores on a mental rotation test (MRT) systematically score higher on anatomy examinations. This study aims to investigate if learning anatomy also oppositely improves the MRT-score. Five hundred first year students of medicine (n = 242, intervention) and educational sciences (n = 258, control) participated in a pretest and posttest MRT, 1 month apart. During this month, the intervention group studied anatomy and the control group studied research methods for the social sciences. In the pretest, the intervention group scored 14.40 (SD: ± 3.37) and the control group 13.17 (SD: ± 3.36) on a scale of 20, which is a significant difference (t-test, t = 4.07, df = 498, P < 0.001). Both groups show an improvement on the posttest compared to the pretest (paired samples t-test, t = 12.21/14.71, df = 257/241, P < 0.001). The improvement in the intervention group is significantly higher (ANCOVA, F = 16.59, df = 1;497, P < 0.001). It is concluded that (1) medical students studying anatomy show greater improvement between two consecutive MRTs than educational science students; (2) medical students have a higher spatial ability than educational sciences students; and (3) if a MRT is repeated there seems to be a test effect. It is concluded that spatial ability may be trained by studying anatomy. The overarching message for anatomy teachers is that a good spatial ability is beneficial for learning anatomy and learning anatomy may be beneficial for students' spatial ability. This reciprocal advantage implies that challenging students on spatial aspects of anatomical knowledge could have a twofold effect on their learning.

CONTEXT During early clinical exposure, medical students have many emotive experiences. Through participation in social practice, they learn to give personal meaning to their emotional states. This meaningful social act of participation may lead to a sense of belonging and identity construction.OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to broaden and deepen our understanding of the interplay between those experiences and students' identity development. Our research questions asked how medical students give meaning to early clinical experiences and how that affects their professional identity development. METHODS Our method was phenomenology.Within that framework we used a narrative interviewing technique. Interviews with 17 medical students on Year 1 attachments to nurses in hospitals and nursing homes were analysed by listening to audio-recordings and reading transcripts. Nine transcripts, which best exemplified the students' range of experiences, were purposively sampled for deeper analysis. Two researchers carried out a systematic analysis using qualitative research software. Finally, cases representing four paradigms were chosen to exemplify the study findings.RESULTS Students experienced their relationships with the people they met during early clinical experiences in very different ways, particularly in terms of feeling and displaying emotions, adjusting, role finding and participation. The interplay among emotions, meaning and identity was complex and four different 'paradigms' of lived experience were apparent: feeling insecure; complying; developing, and participating.CONCLUSIONS We found large differences in the way students related to other people and gave meaning to their first experiences as doctors-to-be. They differed in their ability to engage in ward practices, the way they experienced their roles as medical students and future doctors, and how they experienced and expressed their emotions. Medical educators should help students to be sensitive to their emotions, offer space to explore different meanings, and be ready to suggest alternative interpretations that foster the development of desired professional identities.transitions to medicine

A model of work-related learning based on intentionality and developmental relatedness is proposed here. A shift is called for from an educational perspective on work-related learning to a noneducational perspective in which learning is construed as largely implicit and spontaneous. That is, work-related learning can happen both deliberately and spontaneously as direct or indirect result of work-related interactions. Work-related learning often occurs in messy real-life situations, is influenced by various power and social relations, and results in individual learning