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Evaluation of attitudes and opinions of medical faculty students against the use of cadaver in anatomy education and investigation of the factors affecting their emotional responses related thereto

  • Teaching Anatomy
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Abstract

Introduction

The encounter with the cadaver is one of the few experiences that have a profound effect on the educational life of the medical students. The objective of this study was to investigate medical student’s attitudes and opinions towards the use of cadaver in anatomy education, as well as the factors affecting the emotional reactions they demonstrate in their repeated encounter with the cadaver.

Material and methods

Before the study, ethics committee approval for the study was obtained from the Gaziantep University Clinical Researches Ethical Committee (decision date and number: 2016/40). Two different questionnaires were administered to 351 students who participated in the study. Questionnaire-I was administered before the student’s first encounter with the cadaver, whereas Questionnaire-II was administered twice, one after student’s first encounter with the cadaver and the other after student’s fifth encounter with the cadaver.

Results

The females got significantly more excited before their first encounter with the cadaver, and that they felt more fear and more sadness for the cadaver (p = 0.001, p = 0.002, and p = 0.019, respectively). On the other hand, the males felt significantly readier to see the cadaver (p = 0.002). It was found that statements of emotional shock, excitement, sadness, and fear coming from the participants decreased significantly after their fifth encounter with the cadaver (p = 0.028, p = 0.001, p = 0.048, and p = 0.039, respectively).

Conclusion

Repeated encounters with cadavers were found to have reduced the negative emotions felt by the students, but have negatively affected the thoughts of the students in respect of donating their bodies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Professor Dr. Seval KUL, Head of Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Gaziantep University for the support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, 27310, Turkey

    İlhan Bahşi, Mustafa Orhan, Piraye Kervancıoğlu & Ömer Faruk Cihan

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, 27310, Turkey

    Zehra Topal

  3. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul Medeniyet University, İstanbul, Turkey

    Murat Çetkin

  4. Department of Therapy and Rehabilitation, Health Services Vocational School, Kilis 7 Aralik University, Killis, Turkey

    Mehmet Ercan Odabaşıoğlu

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  1. İlhan Bahşi
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Contributions

Bahşi İ: Protocol/project development, Data collection or management, Data analysis and Manuscript writing/editing. Topal Z: Data analysis and Manuscript writing/editing. Çetkin M: Protocol/project development and Data collection or management. Orhan M: Protocol/project development and Manuscript writing/editing. Kervancıoğlu P: Protocol/project development and Data analysis. Odabaşıoğlu M.E.: Protocol/project development and Data collection or management. Cihan Ö.F.: Manuscript writing/editing.

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Correspondence to İlhan Bahşi.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the ethics committee of Gaziantep University (Approval number: 2016/40).

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Bahşi, İ., Topal, Z., Çetkin, M. et al. Evaluation of attitudes and opinions of medical faculty students against the use of cadaver in anatomy education and investigation of the factors affecting their emotional responses related thereto. Surg Radiol Anat 43, 481–487 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-020-02567-8

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