An analysis of the effectiveness of team roles during anatomy dissections

Vanderbilt University recently adopted an integrated medical curriculum which, like many schools, resulted in a reduction in the number of teaching hours designated for gross anatomy. The reduction in hours primarily affected the lecture portion of the class, while preserving as much time as possible for laboratory dissection. The active components of laboratory dissection are deemed essential to the learning process of the students at Vanderbilt University. Thus, to maximum the time spent in the laboratory students at each dissecting table have access to a large touch‐screen PC that provides the students with daily laboratory goals, dissection instructions and several electronic textbooks and videos that provide resources to aid in their dissection. Typically each table is shared by five students ‐ one of which is assigned to operate the computer, two serve as primary dissectors and two as assistant dissectors. The roles rotate every lab session to ensure that all students are exposed to each responsibility. Thus, this study seeks to investigate if there is a correlation between the student's assigned role and their performance on that particular portion of the practical exam. For instance, on the day of the heart dissection, will the primary dissector perform better on the practical questions specific to that lab than the assisting dissector or the computer operator? Data collected from this study will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of our team roles during gross anatomy as well as assess the impact of the computers during dissection. Grant Funding Source IRACDA NIH 5K12 GM068543 ‐04