Addressing the failures of undergraduate anatomy education: Dissecting the issue and innovating a solution

Reduced time allocation, changes in teaching methods and Covid-19 have resulted in undergraduate anatomy teaching being marginalised.This has implications on patient safety, litigation, student satisfaction and surgical workforce planning.

The aim of this study is to survey a cohort of recent English medical graduates to attain their perspective on anatomy training and to propose an innovative solution to solve existing problems in undergraduate anatomy training.

An online survey was sent out to 40 foundation doctors to offer insights into their undergraduate anatomy training. We asked participants to rate their perceived importance of anatomy, the importance offered to anatomy teaching at undergraduate level, preparation for clinical practice and future career plans.

22 participants responded to the online survey. All trained across England with equal spread between Northern and Southern medical schools. All participants perceived anatomy to be either important or very important in the survey. 20/22 felt that their undergraduate anatomy teaching was given very low to average importance by their institutions. 8/22 were confident or very confident with their anatomy knowledge on beginning clinical practice. Of the 22, 5 planned surgical careers, 10 did not know or gave other responses and 7 wanted to do General Practice. 16/22 said anatomy training had or will impact their decision on choosing a speciality.

The current literature and above survey highlight the deficiencies that current doctors are facing.We suggest implementation of a standardised anatomy curriculum and the development of an online anatomy course.