Medical student perceptions of the value of anatomy knowledge and instructional methodologies toward gaining confidence in clinical skills

Although studies have demonstrated that prosection and dissection approaches to teaching anatomy yield statistically equivalent mastery of anatomical knowledge, it is not known whether the instructional methodology affects student perception of the value of anatomical knowledge as a foundation for clinical skills confidence. As part of a longitudinal study, we conducted the first of seven annual surveys, with Likert‐style questions and free responses of 2nd through 4th year undergraduate medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA/Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and the UCR Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences, inquiring students of their anatomy experience and how they perceived the value of anatomy education. We quantitatively and qualitatively compared perceptions of the anatomy experience and performance on clinical skills assessments of students who learned anatomy through prosection only, dissection only, or prosection and dissection. This study was approved with an IRB Exempt Protocol.