Longitudinal retention of anatomical knowledge in second‐year medical students |
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| Authors: | Denise E Doomernik Harry van Goor Jan GM Kooloos Richard P ten Broek |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Anatomy, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;2. Department of Surgery, Canisius‐Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;3. Department of Surgery, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;4. Department of Surgery, Slingeland Hospital, Doetinchem, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | The Radboud University Medical Center has a problem‐based, learner‐oriented, horizontally, and vertically integrated medical curriculum. Anatomists and clinicians have noticed students’ decreasing anatomical knowledge and the disability to apply knowledge in diagnostic reasoning and problem solving. In a longitudinal cohort, the retention of anatomical knowledge gained during the first year of medical school among second‐year medical students was assessed. In May 2011, 346 medical students applied for the second‐year gastro‐intestinal (GI) tract course. The students were asked to participate in a reexamination of a selection of anatomical questions of an examination from October 2009. The examination consisted of a clinical anatomy case scenario and two computed tomography (CT) images of thorax and abdomen in an extended matching format. A total of 165 students were included for analysis. In 2011, students scored significantly lower for the anatomy examination compared to 2009 with a decline in overall examination score of 14.7% (±11.7%). Decrease in knowledge was higher in the radiological questions, compared to the clinical anatomy cases 17.5% (±13.6%) vs. 7.9% (±10.0%), respectively, d = 5.17. In both years, male students scored slightly better compared to female students, and decline of knowledge seems somewhat lower in male students (13.1% (±11.1%) vs. 15.5% (±12.0%), respectively), d = ?0.21. Anatomical knowledge in the problem‐oriented horizontal and vertical integrated medical curriculum, declined by approximately 15% 1.5 year after the initial anatomy course. The loss of knowledge in the present study is relative small compared to previous studies. Anat Sci Educ 10: 242–248. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists. |
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| Keywords: | gross anatomy education medical education undergraduate education retention of knowledge problem‐based learning horizontal integration vertical integration |
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