Re-humanizing anatomy? Learning through human body donors in physiotherapy education

Anatomical knowledge underpins clinical skills and professional identity in physiotherapy. However, dedicated teaching has declined in recent years. Body donor-based learning, though common in medical education, is rarely used in physiotherapy. Its integration may enhance learning through embodied, haptic experiences, and greater physical and emotional engagement with anatomical structures. A qualitative methodology grounded in phenomenology and hermeneutics was employed, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore how final-year BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy students made sense of their experiences of learning anatomy through haptic interaction with body donors facilitated by a supersoft-fix preservation technique. This study provides a novel perspective of the impact of learning anatomy through body donors and prosections for physiotherapy students. While learning anatomy with body donors affords students deep and embodied haptic learning opportunities, there are emotional aspects, which physiotherapy educators must consider. These emotional aspects can influence how students perceive the humanity or non-humanity of body donors. Soft-fixation embalming techniques permit students to mobilize joints and observe dynamic functional movement, which enhances students' anatomical understanding. However, educators must consider the variable and complex nature of how physiotherapy students view and interact with body donors and the potential influence on these experiences toward developing their professional identity. Re-humanizing anatomy is a dynamic learning process where students describe moving within a "Body Donor Learning Continuum" (BDLC) where, over time and through reflection, they experience a spectrum of negative to positive emotions and reactions.