Students' and doctors' performance in an anatomy knowledge test: a comparison between traditional and clinical anatomy

Abstract

The study compared test performance in an anatomy knowledge test between medical students from a traditional anatomy course, a clinical anatomy course, from clinical clerkships, and practising doctors. The study participants were 66 students from a traditional anatomy course, 48 students from a clinical anatomy course, 45 from clinical clerkships and 22 practising doctors. The students were of the classes of 2002 at University of Zambia and the doctors were at Lusaka University Teaching Hospital. All participants took an identical anatomy knowledge test that had two subtests: traditional and clinical. Each subtest had 20 multiple-choice questions. On average, the doctors failed the traditional anatomy subtest, while the other groups passed it. The students from the traditional curriculum failed the clinical anatomy subtest. The students who had completed a clinical anatomy course had the best performance in both subtests. The results support Sinclair's hypothesis` that there exist anatomy curricula that directly support clinical practice (Clinically Oriented Anatomy Teaching) and those, which do not support clinical practice directly (Traditional Anatomy). The results also show that doctors forget the traditional anatomy at the time of their practice and that students who have completed a clinically oriented anatomy course learn anatomical knowledge required for clinical practice while those from the traditional course do not.