Evaluating quality of medical students’ dissections in the gross anatomy laboratory

Gross anatomy laboratory dissection experience continues to be an integral part of the majority of gross anatomy courses in the United States. Student‐dissected specimens, typically used for practical exams administered during the course, vary in quality. In most anatomy courses the quality of cadaveric dissection is not counted toward the final grade, therefore students are not overly concerned with completing their daily laboratory assignments. Often gross anatomy teaching faculty is challenged to find good examples of dissected structures to be used for testing purposes, frequently spending additional dissecting time to secure adequate material for examinations. Dissection at Mayo Medical School is performed as a collaborative effort of a four‐member dissection team. A new method was implemented to evaluate dissection and provide the students with weekly formative feedback regarding the quality of their dissection. Team performance was graded and constituted 5% of the total grade for the course. A ten‐point evaluation tool was used that incorporated both objective and subjective measures for determining whether students had met learning objectives. Implementation of dissection evaluation resulted in the improvement of dissection quality. The dissection evaluation proved to be a valuable assessment tool in our anatomy curriculum and one that students found beneficial. Grant Funding Source : Department of Anatomy