Preuniversity Students' Perceptions and Attitudes About an Anatomy and Physiology Outreach Program: Survey Study and Inductive Thematic Analysis (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED Outreach activities are aimed to motivate and inspire prospective students in health professions education; however, research studies supporting this hypothesis are limited. To gather evidence on the attitudes and perceptions of pre-university students on such activities, an integrated anatomy and physiology outreach was organized to examine students’ learning experiences (of learning tools, activities, and facilitators) and motivation to pursue a career in health care. A tailored workshop mimicking medical teaching was taught over two days at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore utilizing the multimodal practical and team-based learning pedagogy. Ninety pre-university students from 21 pre-university institutions in Singapore participated; their experiences were evaluated using a four-point Likert scale and open-ended survey questions. Free text comments were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Most students felt that the course materials were adequate (Mean ± SD = 3.56 ± 0.56) and met the learning objectives (3.72 ± 0.52) and instructors were clear (3.72 ± 0.52) and effective (3.70 ± 0.53). They liked the organization of the outreach session (3.64 ± 0.48) and held high motivation to study medicine or allied/biomedical sciences (3.69 ± 0.53). Practical and team-based learning were regarded as exceedingly satisfactory (3.63 ± 0.53 and 3.58 ± 0.53, respectively); all the respondents would recommend this course to peers. Thematic analysis revealed gaining a new perspective, unique learning settings, motivation and aspirations, sense of satisfaction and interaction with facilitators. Thus, structured outreaches provide students with unique opportunities to experience a medical school preclinical learning environment, which has a positive impact on building their knowledge, and understanding of human structure and function, and increases students’ motivation to pursue future health profession careers.