Frank Netter's legacy: Interprofessional anatomy instruction

Abstract

Several medical schools have recently described new innovations in interprofessional interactions in gross anatomy courses. The Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT has developed and implemented two contrasting interprofessional experiences in first-year medical student gross anatomy dissection laboratories: long-term, informal visits by pathologists' assistant students who work with the medical students to identify potential donor pathologies, and a short-term, formal visit by fourth-year dental students who teach craniofacial anatomy during the oral cavity dissection laboratory. A survey of attitudes of participants was analyzed and suggest the interprofessional experiences were mutually beneficial for all involved, and indicate that implementing multiple, contrasting interprofessional interactions with different goals within a single course is feasible. Two multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data. The first analysis examined attitudes of medical students towards a pathologists' assistant role in a health care team. The question addressing a pathologists' assistant involvement in the anatomy laboratory was most significant. The second analysis examined attitudes of medical students towards the importance of a good foundation in craniofacial anatomy for clinical practice. This perceived importance is influenced by the presence of dental students in the anatomy laboratory. In both instances, the peer interprofessional interactions in the anatomy laboratory resulted in an overall positive attitude of medical students towards pathologists' assistant and dental students. The consequences of these interactions led to better understanding, appreciation and respect of the different professionals that contribute to a health care team.

Can CanMEDS competencies be developed in medical school anatomy laboratories? A literature review

“…Fernandes and colleagues even reported a positive benefit to the students’ professional identity, as individuals 34 . Another group reported that having dental students involving in craniofacial anatomy actually improved the medical students’ motivation to learn and enhanced their perception of the importance of the subject matter in clinical practice 37 . Only Krause and colleagues reported partially negative student perceptions of interprofessional anatomy education 31 .…”

<p>Nursing and medical students near-peer activity in the anatomy laboratory: format for success</p>

“…Recent studies have demonstrated that using gross anatomy dissection as an IPE venue fosters positive attitudes toward other health professional students and enhances teamwork and communication skills 12,18,19. By identifying common grounds and complementarities in their knowledge of anatomy, students from different professional programs can better understand each other’s professional scope and improve their clinical collaboration 3,4,20–22. Shields, Pizzimenti, Dudley‐Javoroski, Schwinn12 demonstrated that such activities between medicine and physical therapy programs successfully fostered discussions about each profession’s approach to learning about anatomy.…”

Interprofessional education in undergraduate dental curricula: A systematic review

“…However, for "competencies developed," when the data were not clear in the text of the article, we extracted them based on the similarity between the text and the competencies addressed by the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC) 17 and Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) 18 frameworks, and for remote activities, we used Gunawardena's interaction analysis model (AMI). 19 Regarding geographical distribution worldwide, nine of the included studies were conducted in North America, [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] five in South America, [28][29][30][31][32] three in Europe, [33][34][35] one in Africa, 36 and three in Oceania. [37][38][39] Figure 2 shows the universities involved.…”

“…The following undergraduate courses (mostly in the health sciences) were involved in the included articles: dentistry, 20,21-41 medicine, [21][22][23][24]27,[30][31][32][33][34]36,37,40,41 nursing, [20][21][22]25,26,[30][31][32][33]36,37,[39][40][41] pharmacy, 21,22,26,27,[30][31][32]36,37,40,41 physical education, 22,[30][31][32]39 occupational therapy, 22,27,36,37,39 nutrition, 22,23,…”