Anxiety among Medical Students when Faced with the Practice of Anatomical Dissection

Abstract

Practical training in the dissection of human cadavers is a fundamental and traditional component of human anatomy education in medical schools. This practice, however, can be stressful for students and can generate a certain amount of anxiety. The aim of this study is to explore the attitudes, reactions, and anxiety levels of first‐year medical students when working in the dissecting room, over a period of one year, and to relate these anxiety levels to the results of our educational program. This is a before and after descriptive study of students at the University of Castilla‐La‐Mancha. Questionnaires were distributed among them before and after their dissection practices in order to understand their feelings and emotions and their satisfaction about this activity. State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires were used to assess the students’ ‘state anxiety’ (SA), which dropped significantly from 49.1% to 14% by the end of their first year. Female students started with higher levels of SA than their male counterparts but by the end of the year these had dropped to similar levels. Anxiety and fearful thoughts tended to drop (P > 0.05). In contrast, uncertainty levels showed significant changes, falling from 44.4% to 12.3%. Nonetheless, 100% of students would go through the experience again. Indeed, 98.2% considered that dissection practices were useful in reinforcing the theoretical aspects of their education, and 80.7% believed that dissecting was more useful than theoretical models. Although students were satisfied with dissection practices the experience cause stressful responses.

REACTIONS OF FIRST YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS IN THE DISSECTION ROOM, WITH PROSECTED CORPSES, AND THE INCIDENCE ON OWN BODY DONATION. Las reacciones de los estudiantes de primer año de Medicina en la sala de disección, con cuerpos disecados, y la incidencia sobre la donación del propio cuerpo

“…Gender distribution was according to the general situation in Medicine and female predominance, even if increasing year to year, did not show statistical difference compared to our study from 2015 (Biasutto et al, 2018) (p=0.6217). This distribution was similar to that reported by Miguel Pérez et al (2007) in Barcelona University (p=0.0731) and Romo Barrientos et al (2018) in the University of Castilla-La Mancha (p=0.2106). www.anatclinar.com.ar…”

“…Miguel Perez et al (2007) also reported corpse and dissection room smell and cadaver appearance as the main causes of student reactions; and relaxation, humor and staying with friends as the usual ways to overcome them. For Romo Barrientos et al (2018) the smell of the dissection room increased to 72% among their respondents at the end of the course as main cause of displeasure, without a significant difference compared to our report (p=0.3179). But Romo Barrientos et al (2018) did not discriminate among corpse and room smell.…”

“…Changes in the will to donate the own corpse could be a parameter to identify the consequences of these perceptions. Because of the study design, the most similar articles were those of Miguel Pérez et al 2007, Abay and Desalegn (2012) and Romo Barrientos (2018) about Spanish and Ethiopian students, with 3 steps survey at similar opportunities (before, immediately after the first contact with the cadaver and at the end of the course), even if the results were not the same and their students dissect by themselves. Gender distribution was according to the general situation in Medicine and female predominance, even if increasing year to year, did not show statistical difference compared to our study from 2015 (Biasutto et al, 2018) (p=0.6217).…”

“…Once that reservation was made, we could mention a great difference with Ethiopian students for who fear was the main stressing factor during dissection (58.5%) (Abay and Desalegn, 2012) while it was insignificant in our study (0.43%), and completely different than enthusiasm (p=0.3823). Curiosity and interest in Spanish (Arraez-Aybar et al, 2007;Romo Barrientos et al, 2018), even if not directly comparable with enthusiasm and curiosity, evidenced similar orientation in student's feelings. Surprise among Korean students (Lee et al, 2011) was similarly frequent (38% -p=0.2264), but it was the first emotion due by the first contact with the cadaver, followed by very negative ones as depression, sadness, fear, feeling of guilt and others.…”

Time Spent in Practicing Dissection Correlated with Improvement in Anatomical Knowledge of Students: Experimental Study in an Integrated Learning Program

“…In addition to this, practicing dissection increases cognitive abilities and attention span of medical students, besides increasing their physical endurance -an essential prerequisite for medical students [24]. This is similar to what Agius et al stated that a strong interest in studying medicine as a career motivates students and lowers the level of their mental stress [25].…”