Introducing Novel Surgical Clinical Correlations Into an Undergraduate Medical Anatomy Course

Anatomy education is a hallmark of many preclinical medical school curricula, but students are often unable to identify the clinical relevance of anatomy and its applications. Vertical curricula that integrate clinical concepts into the preclinical basic science years and vice versa have been shown to benefit student learning and increase educational enjoyment. This study explores second-year medical students' perceptions of the integration of clinical surgical concepts and surgical faculty into a preclinical digestive system (GI) anatomy course. The GI anatomy course at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School was modified to build on traditional anatomy content by correlating it directly with clinical surgical content. This included a novel, focused anatomy and surgery correlations booklet and surgical videos relevant to anatomical topics. Additionally, practicing general surgeons came to the anatomy lab to interact with the students and provide further clinical relevance. Survey data were collected regarding students' perceptions of integrating surgical concepts and surgeons into the anatomy curriculum, and exploring factors influencing their interest in a surgical career. The data revealed that students valued both the correlations booklet and interacting with surgeons in the anatomy lab. When ranked on a five-point Likert scale, students found both surgeons in the laboratory (M = 4.15, SD = 0.86) and the surgical correlation booklet (M = 3.52, SD = 0.51) helped them in learning the anatomy curriculum. The data did not suggest a direct relationship between interacting with surgeons in the anatomy lab and student surgical career interest. Instead, students reported additional experiences (i.e., shadowing and preceptorships) and anatomical dissection as influencing their career decisions. This study provides further evidence for the benefits of a vertical medical school curriculum by integrating clinical content and formal interactions with clinicians during the preclinical curriculum. The findings also demonstrate that further research should be completed to understand the factors influencing student interest in a surgical career.