Study of Clinical Medical Teachers' Attitudes to the Knowledge of Gross Anatomy of Medical Students / 체질인류학회지

ABSTRACT

There is concerns about the perceived decline in the knowledge of gross anatomy of the medical students and postgraduate trainees. It is partly caused by the introduction of integrated medical curriculum and the shortage of basic medical science program and the extension of clinical clerkship consequently. There is widespread variability in the teaching style and anatomical curricular content at the medical school in Korea. Despite these changes in the anatomical education, there have been few attempts to assess the opinions of senior clinical teachers on the state of anatomical knowledge of students and the place of anatomy teaching within the curriculum. We sought the views of the clinical teachers on the adequacy of the anatomical knowledge of current students and recent graduates of 5 medical schools in Pusan and Gyeongsang-Nam do areas. Most of the clinical teachers were of the opinion that current medical students have an insufficient anatomical knowledge. They indicated the causes of decline were the clinical irrelevant anatomical teaching content and weakness of identity of anatomy by the introduction of the integrated medical education program. There was widespread support for both the concepts of spreading anatomy teaching throughout the medical course, and an optional, clinically related final year student project in the anatomy.