Focused anatomy workshops for clerkships and the USMLE Step 1 examination

Anatomy is essential for understanding healthy and disease states as well as for the successful completion of clinical clerkships and board examinations. This project provided structured workshops aimed to review anatomical concepts for clerkships and Step 1 and provided a means for medical students to assess their anatomical knowledge. We provided six optional anatomy workshops, in which students (1) took a pre-session quiz, (2) faculty reviewed key anatomy of a particular system (e.g., musculoskeletal), (3) students worked through clinical cases in small groups, and (4) students took a post-session quiz and responded to a post-session survey to rate satisfaction of session content and delivery on a five-point Likert scale. One session was excluded due to small sample size (n = 2). Results from five workshops, including brachial plexus, musculoskeletal, pelvic, gastrointestinal, and head and neck anatomy, showed that students performed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) better on the post-session quizzes compared to pre-session quizzes in all sessions. Post-session survey results indicated that students were satisfied with session content and facilitation, would attend future workshops, and would use session materials to study for Step 1. Based on these short-term benefits of the sessions, we plan to continue offering monthly workshops to medical students to increase knowledge retention of key anatomical concepts and increase preparedness for clerkships and Step 1. Future studies will longitudinally follow up with students post-Step 1 and clerkships to determine the long-term benefits of offering these workshops.