Reactions of first-year podiatry students to cadaver dissection

A study was conducted to determine the reactions of Podiatry students to the initial anatomy dissecting laboratory sessions. Forty-three podiatry students were invited to complete a semi-structured, self-administered anonymous questionnaire (93% response). The questionnaire focused on expectations, thoughts and reactions of students. The responses revealed the students were ill-prepared for the experience and many did not know what to expect. No positive responses were recorded, with a high number of students (58%) reporting unpleasant physical reactions, nightmares and negative thoughts since the experience. A small number of students (7.5%) found the sessions so disturbing they lost academic content viability. Podiatry students may not anticipate encounters with the dead, and this may account for the relatively high number of disturbing experiences reported.sch_podBARTOND, . (19 72) The need for including instruction on death and dying in the medical curriculum, Journal of Medical Education, 47, BERTMANS, .L. & MARKS,S .C. Jr (1985) Humanities in medical education: rationale and resources for the dissection laboratory, Medical Education, 19, pp. 374381. CHARLTONR, . (1993) Education about death and dying at Otago University Medical School, New Zealand Medical Journal, 106, pp. 447449. CHARLTONR, ., DOVEYS, .M., JONES,D .G. & BLUNT, A. (1994) Effects of cadaver dissection on the attitudes of medical students, Medical Education, 28, pp. 290-295. EVANS,E .J. & FITZGIBBOGN.H, . (1992) The dissecting room: reactions of first year medical students, Clinical Anatomy, 5, FINKELSTEPIN. , & MATHERS,L . (1990) Post-traumatic stress among medical students in the anatomy dissection laboratory, Clinical Anatomy, 3, pp. 2 19-2 16. GUSTAVSONN., (19 88) The effect of human dissection on first-year students and implications for the doctor-patient relationship, Journal of Medical Education, 63, pp. 62-64. HORNE,D .J., TILLERJ.W, .G., EIZENBERGN,. , TASHEVSMK.A &, BIDDLE, N. (1990) Reactions of first-year medical students to their initial encounter with a cadaver in the dissecting room, Academic Medicine, 65, pp. 645-646. pp. 169-175. HULL, F.M. (1991) Death, dying and the medical student, Medical Education, 25, pp. 491496. MARKSS, .C. Jr. & BERTMANS,. L. (1980) Experiences with learning about death and dying in the undergraduate anatomy curriculum, Journal of Medical Education, 55, pp. 48-52. NNODIMJ, .O. (1990) Learning human anatomy: by dissection or from prosections?, Medical Educanon, 24, pp. 389-395. PENNEYJ,. C. (1985) Reactions of medical students to dissection, Journal of Medical Education, 60, pp. 58-60. RODNINGC, .B. (1989) '0 death where is thy sting?' Historical perspectives on the relationship of human postmortem anatomical dissection to medical education and care, Clinical Anatomy, 2, RICHARDSONR, . & HURWTZ,B . (1995) Donors' attitudes towards SUKOLR,. B. (1 995) Building on a tradition of ethical consideration WEAR, D. (1989) Cadaver talk medical students' accounts of their pp. 277-292. body donation for dissection, Lancet, 346, pp. 277-279. of the dead, Human Pathology, 26, pp. 700-705. year long experience, Death Studies, 13, pp. 379-391.19pub835pub