Why do medical students forget anatomy later on? A qualitative study

To explore medical students' perceptions of the factors contributing to retention of anatomy and its relevance to their clinical practice.

The qualitative study was conducted at Al Nafees Medical College, Islamabad, Pakistan, in February 2017, and comprised final year students who appeared in a test of anatomy based on multiple choice questions. Six high achievers and six low achievers of the test were selected for in-depth one-on-one semi-structured interviews. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using NVivo software version 11.The reasons why medical students forget anatomy later on were found by thematic analysis.

Of the final year batch of 100 students, 64 students volunteered to take the test. A total of 8 themes were identified. Some factors were uniformly distributed among the high and low achievers, but teaching with clinical context, use of learning strategies, teaching core anatomy concepts, and reinforcement was demonstrated more by the high achievers. (70%) Majority of low achievers (55%) showed the lack of use of metacognitive strategies and strategic learning strategies for retention of anatomy.

The factors responsible for retaining anatomy were found to be teaching with clinical context, teaching core content of anatomy, reinforcement and the integration of anatomy in the clinical years.