A Comparison of Fourth-Year Health Sciences Students’ Knowledge of Gross Lower and Upper Limb Anatomy

Second‐Year Nursing Students’ Retention of Gross Anatomical Knowledge

“…Despite anatomy being considered a fundamental requirement for clinical practice in health sciences, emerging evidence reveals a widespread “bioscience problem” that seems to affect anatomy in nursing education (Connolly et al ) both nationally (Andrew et al, ; Taylor et al, ) and internationally (Craft et al, ; McVicar et al, , ; Díaz‐Mancha et al, ; Booth et al, ; Günay and Kılınç, ). Nursing education continues to evolve worldwide to support clinical and professional roles and a strong anatomy knowledge base is crucial for nursing students to become successful practitioners after graduation (McVicar et al, , ).…”

“…Numerous studies have reported a growing concern over the loss of anatomy knowledge throughout medical programs (Bhangu et al, ; Jurjus et al, ; Doomernik et al, ; Easteal and Perry, ; Norris et al, ) and allied‐health disciplines such as physical therapy (Anderson and Conley, ), kinesiology (Wagner, ), chiropractic (Strkalj et al, ), veterinary science (Wade and Walker, ), physician assistant (Keim Janssen et al, ) speech‐language pathology (Barros et al, ), optometry (Backhouse et al, ), podiatry (Díaz‐Mancha et al, ), and nursing (McVicar et al, , ; Booth et al, ; Alt‐Gehrman, ). These studies suggest that there is great difficulty not only in transferring fundamental anatomy knowledge to theory/clinical application but also a loss of that knowledge over time (Bhangu et al, ; Brunk et al, ).…”

“…Most of the knowledge retention studies cited above were focused on single specific organ systems (Díaz‐Mancha et al, ) or regional gross anatomy (Starkalj et al, ; Jurjus et al, ; Brunk et al, ; Doomernik et al, ) and were focused on either medical (Bhangu et al, ; Finnerty et al, ; Jurjus et al, ; Doomernik et al, ; Easteal and Perry, ; Norris et al, ) or allied health students (Fiebert and Waggoner, ; Strkalj et al, ; Keim Janssen et al, ; Barros et al, ; Backhouse et al, ). However, for nursing education worldwide, retention of anatomy knowledge has not yet been studied as extensively as for medical (Jurjus, et al, ; Doomernik et al, ) and allied‐health students (Wade and Walker, ; Strkalj et al, ; Keim Janssen et al, ; Meyer et al, ; Barros et al, ).…”

“…However, for nursing education worldwide, retention of anatomy knowledge has not yet been studied as extensively as for medical (Jurjus, et al, ; Doomernik et al, ) and allied‐health students (Wade and Walker, ; Strkalj et al, ; Keim Janssen et al, ; Meyer et al, ; Barros et al, ). Several studies have identified concerns regarding the importance of bioscience knowledge and its acquisition by nursing students in the United Kingdom (McVicar et al, , ), Ireland (McKee, ), Australia (Pitt et al, ; Craft et al, ), New Zealand (Fridel and Treaugust, ; Whyte et al, ), Italy (Dante et al, ), Spain (Díaz‐Mancha et al, ), Finland (Aari et al, ), Sweden (Andersson and Edberg, ), Malaysia (Durai et al, ), Turkey (Günay and Kılınç, ), Iran (Ghezeljeh et al, ), United States (Wolkowitz and Kelley, ; Culyer et al, ; Alt‐Gehrman, ), and Canada (Booth et al, ).…”

“…Secondly, these studies demonstrate the factors impacting curriculum interventions such as admission criteria, teaching strategy, lecture ability, and curriculum time (Davis, ; Shulruf et al, ; Craft et al, ). Other factors such as clinical placements and strategies used to enforce learning (McVicar et al, ), the time period evaluated (Craft et al, ; Kardong‐Edgren et al, ; McVicar et al, ), the number of organ systems and type of organ system studied (Aari et al, ; Díaz‐Mancha et al, ; Emke et al, ; Craft et al, ), and student factors such as age, gender, employment status, admission qualifications, personality, anxiety, self‐efficacy, and support‐seeking behaviors (Pitt et al, ). Thirdly, these studies described knowledge transfer from high school science to the first‐year of the biosciences in university (Whyte et al, ; Youssef‐Shalala et al, ; McVicar et al, ) or from theory to clinical (Booth et al, ; Günay and Kılınç, ; Alt‐Gehrman, ) or practical (Wagner, ; Taylor et al, ; Emke et al, ; Culyer et al, ).…”