An innovative technique to promote understanding of anatomy for nurse practitioner students

Abstract

Nurse practitioner (NP) students are required to have a clear understanding of the complexities of the human body. Students enter graduate studies with varying experiences and backgrounds in anatomy and physiology. Evidence suggests that human anatomy laboratories increase learning outcomes when compared with comparative anatomy modalities. The purpose of this evaluation was to determine if teaching with a computed tomography (CT)-based three-dimensional (3D) anatomy table and cadaveric specimens improves Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and NP students' understanding of anatomy in health assessment. Students participated in a hands-on anatomy review using a 3D anatomy table and human cadavers to master the five included body systems. Presurveys and postsurveys were administered to determine how much time had lapsed since our students' most recent anatomy class and the type of dissection laboratory provided within that class; to assess knowledge confidence in pediatric Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat (HEENT) anatomy; and to assess students' confidence in pediatric anatomical knowledge for all five body systems. Data were analyzed using a Mann–Whitney U test with independent samples. All areas with the exception of HEENT showed clinically significant improvement, including overall scores. Many positive themes were identified using qualitative thematic analysis. Teaching with a CT-based, 3D anatomy table with cadaveric specimens improved DNP and NP students' confidence levels in pediatric anatomy knowledge for all five systems. This innovative combination of human cadavers and virtual technology has the potential to produce advanced anatomical understanding for prospective health care professionals and to validate their capacity to conduct complex health assessments and procedures.

How students discern anatomical structures using digital three‐dimensional visualizations in anatomy education

“…Three-dimensional visualization technologies now offer new approaches to teaching and learning anatomy. 2,5,6 Traditional approaches such as cadaver dissections are complemented with technologies like two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) digital imaging to investigate and learn the anatomy of the human body. 7,8 In the literature, the term 3D technology has various meanings.…”

Nurses' perspectives on the application of humanistic anatomical knowledge in clinical practice

“…Visual aids are widely used in both in-person and online nursing education. Various methods of imparting knowledge of anatomy to nursing students have been tested worldwide: video-based lectures in Egypt (El-Sayed & El-Sayed, 2013), kinesthetic learning activities in the United States (Wagner, 2014), hands-on games and puzzles in Australia (Salvage-Jones et al, 2016), interdisciplinary theoretical-practical activities in Brazil (Ratero et al, 2020), and virtual anatomy tables (Whited et al, 2019;Bianchi et al, 2020;Narnaware & Neumeier, 2021).…”

“…Most pedagogical strategies lead to positive learning outcomes for undergraduate students and increase confidence in knowledge of anatomy among nurse practitioners and nursing doctorate students (Whited et al, 2019). Doctor of nursing practice and nurse practitioner students have reported that three-dimensional anatomy tables alongside prosected human cadavers can strengthen their ability to identify pathologies in virtual case studies (Whited et al, 2019).…”

“…Visual aids are widely used in both in‐person and online nursing education. Various methods of imparting knowledge of anatomy to nursing students have been tested worldwide: video‐based lectures in Egypt (El‐Sayed & El‐Sayed, 2013), kinesthetic learning activities in the United States (Wagner, 2014), hands‐on games and puzzles in Australia (Salvage‐Jones et al, 2016), interdisciplinary theoretical–practical activities in Brazil (Ratero et al, 2020), and virtual anatomy tables (Whited et al, 2019; Bianchi et al, 2020; Narnaware & Neumeier, 2021). Parts of human cadavers are sometimes used for nursing education; prosected human anatomical materials have been used in Australia (Johnston, 2010), Ireland (McGarvey et al, 2015), and Israel (Asman et al, 2022), and serial humanistic activities have been combined with a human cadaveric anatomy course in Taiwan (Lai et al, 2019, 2020).…”

“…In these studies, the undergraduate students' subjective self‐assessments primarily revealed positive learning outcomes. Several students highly valued being exposed to prosected anatomical materials (Johnston, 2010; Lai et al, 2019; Asman et al, 2022), exhibited high levels of satisfaction and enthusiasm toward video‐based learning (El‐Sayed & El‐Sayed, 2013), self‐rated higher levels of knowledge (Whited et al, 2019), engaged, retained knowledge, thought critically (Wagner, 2014), indicated little difficulty learning theory and dealing with patients' deaths (McGarvey et al, 2015), achieved high professional satisfaction (Salvage‐Jones et al, 2016), exhibited high self‐confidence (Bianchi et al, 2020), and identified with the profession of nursing (Asman et al, 2022). Objective learning outcomes have also been observed; evidence has revealed the importance of improving average examination scores and perceiving positive experiences with virtual anatomy tables (Bianchi et al, 2020; Narnaware & Neumeier, 2021).…”