Reactions of medical students to the dissecting room

Myint, Yi Yi and Tun, Ye (2012) Reactions of medical students to the dissecting room. In: Research, Invention and Innovation Exhibition (IRIIE 2012), 21-22 Feb 2012, Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

PDF Restricted to Repository staff only Download (355kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the reactions of preclinical medical students from year 1 and year 2 of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) to the dissecting room. A questionnaire was distributed to 183 students (90 from year 1 and 93 from year 2) in academic year 2001-2002. The modal age of the students was 20 years (52.9%) in year 1 and 21 (60%) in year 2. The majority of the students were Malaysian (96.6% in year 1 and 96.7% in year 2) while the rest were international students. The response rate was 77.77% (70/90) from year 1 and 96.77% (90/93) from year 2 students. It was found that less than half of the students had physical symptoms on first entry to the dissecting room. The most common was dizziness (experienced by 27.1% of year 1 students and 36.7% of year 2 students). The most frequent cause of symptoms was the smell of the dissecting room (61.4% of year 1 and 34.6% of year 2 students). The most frequent method of coping with unpleasant symptoms was by relaxation (48.6% of year 1 and 44.4% of year 2 students). We found that although a majority of students expressed no untoward reaction towards the dissecting room, 17.1% of first year and 21.1% of second year students suffered the physical symptoms for over a year. The students found examinations and course workload to be more stressful than being in the dissecting room. But 4.3% of year 1 students and 9.1% of year 2 students found that the dissecting room was the most stressful place. However, the majority rated anatomy room stress from 0 (no stress) to 2 (moderate stress) on a scale from 0 to 4. The symptoms were mainly attributed to the smell of formalin. With respect to learning methods, more than 70% students stated that they used practical classes in gross anatomy and histology as a learning method.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Additional Information:	3635/22268
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anatomy, dissecting room, preclinical students, student reactions, stress, learning methods.
Subjects:	Q Science > QM Human anatomy
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Medicine > Department of Basic Medical
Depositing User:	Dr Ye Tun
Date Deposited:	16 Jul 2012 15:32
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2017 10:31
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/22268

Actions (login required)

View Item