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Physician assistant anatomy education: does prior anatomy experience predict performance?
Author(s) -
Terhune Claire E.,
Melcher Betsy Q.,
Taylor Andrea B.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.956.21
Subject(s) - dissection (medical) , curriculum , medical education , anatomy , psychology , medicine , pedagogy
Anatomy education in the Duke Physician Assistant (PA) program has been historically prosection‐based and heavily clinically oriented. Based on alumni feedback, in 2009 this course was transformed into a foundational anatomy course with studentperformed dissection. As part of this modification, data were collected describing incoming students’ prior anatomy experience. These data were used to combine experienced and non‐experienced students into lab groups to optimize group learning and maximize lab resource use. At present we have three years of data for students in this new anatomy curriculum. These data also allow us to evaluate whether past experience predicts course performance and/or performance on the Physician Assistant Clinical Knowledge Rating and Assessment Tool (PACKRAT). Relationships between experience (e.g., number of semesters, dissection vs. prosection) and performance in the course and on the PACKRAT were examined using linear regression analysis and ANOVA. Contrary to our initial expectations, results indicate that prior anatomy experience is not a significant (P>;0.05) predictor of anatomy performance or PACKRAT scores. However, anatomy performance was significantly related to performance on the PACKRAT. We suggest there may multiple potential confounding factors that could be related to these outcomes, which will be incorporated into future analyses. Grant Funding Source : n/a Submitted to PAEA 5/25/2012 (bqmelcher)