[Analytic study of hopes and perceptions of second-year medical school students during gross anatomy laboratory...

Using an anonymous questionnaire, this study aimed to assess hopes and perceptions of second-year medical school students faced to gross anatomy dissections and to appreciate the status of dissection within the others anatomical teaching tools.

The questionnaire was distributed among 210 second-year medical students during gross anatomy dissections. The first part of the questionnaire aimed to assess perceptions of students before dissections while the second part aimed to position dissection in their anatomical teaching cursus.

Within the 210 students participating to the study, 70 (45%) had not seen a dead human body before the laboratory cession. The main stressful factors were technical difficulties encountered during dissection more than embarrassment in front of the cadaver. The level of stress was significantly higher in female students. Hand, neck and gluteal regions were the most stressful regions reported by students. Students considered that gross anatomy dissection was a key ritual experience crucial for their formation that should not be only proposed to senior practitioners.

This study illustrates the invariable interest of medical students for gross anatomy laboratory cessions that permit a first technical experience, faced to the death.