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Performance in an Anatomy Pre‐course Predicts Performance in a Professional Veterinary Anatomy Curriculum
Author(s) -
McNulty Margaret A.,
StevensSparks Cathryn,
Taboada Joseph,
Daniel Annie,
Lazarus Michelle D.
Publication year - 2016
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.30.1_supplement.569.3
Subject(s) - coursework , curriculum , medicine , course (navigation) , medical education , anatomy , psychology , pedagogy , engineering , aerospace engineering
Previous research, including work that has been performed by the co‐authors, has found minimal to no correlation between prior undergraduate coursework and performance in either a professional medical or professional veterinary curriculum. Our preceding work showed that a one‐week pre‐course in veterinary anatomy significantly improved performance within a professional veterinary anatomy curriculum. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether performance in this pre‐course indicated professional anatomy curriculum accomplishments. A one‐week anatomy pre‐course was offered before start of classes to two student cohorts at LSU's School of Veterinary Medicine, the classes of 2018 and 2019. This pre‐course focused on musculoskeletal anatomy of the canine thoracic limb. Immediately following pre‐course completion, students were evaluated via written & practical examinations. Grades in the subsequent fall professional veterinary anatomy course were collected and compared to the students’ performance on the aforementioned pre‐course examinations using Kendall's tau correlation analyses. In both student cohorts, there was a significant (p<0.05) positive correlation between performance on the written exam within the pre‐course and performance on written exams in the professional anatomy course, and this finding was irrespective of whether the material was covered in the pre‐course. Similarly, there was also significant (p<0.05) positive correlation between performance on the practical exam within the pre‐course and performance on practical exams in the professional anatomy course for all participants. The results from this study indicate that performance in a one‐week pre‐course in anatomy can predict student performance in a professional veterinary anatomy curriculum. Grounded theory qualitative analysis of open ended feedback following the pre‐course will be used to determine differences, if any, between those who performed well in the pre‐course compared to those who did not. Together, our results suggest that participation and performance in a one‐week pre‐course focused in anatomy is a reliable measure of performance within a professional veterinary anatomy curriculum. Our results also suggest that participation in an anatomy‐focused pre‐course may be a method of identifying students prior to the start of the semester who would struggle within the professional anatomy curriculum, and efforts can be directed to assist those students with improved study methods. Further studies will evaluate whether performance in the anatomy pre‐course influences and/or predicts performance in other aspects of professional schooling.