Use of Clinically Oriented Laboratory Manuals in a Prosection Gross Anatomy Laboratory during COVID-19

Gross anatomy is a critical course for the development of a variety of skills such as anatomical knowledge and spatial, critical, and clinical reasoning. There have been few attempts to integrate clinical applications in gross anatomy, with the majority of these being in the lecture hall and not in the laboratory. Clinical cases and guided questions were added to a laboratory manual (Clinically Oriented Laboratory Manuals (COLMs)) in a first-year medical gross anatomy prosection course during COVID-19. The effectiveness of the COLMs was analyzed using in-laboratory assessments between treatment and control groups, as well as student perceptions. There was no significant difference between in-lab assessment scores between students with or without the COLMs in 2020 (t_1304.735= 0.647, p ;= 0.518). Student perceptions demonstrated that 61.6% strongly agreed or agreed that the COLMs were a good way to learn anatomy and 32.0% desired more COLMs in the lab. Overall, COLMs did not increase student knowledge by the end of a session. Students thought the COLMs were a good tool to learn anatomy because they helped become more clinically aware; however, students desired better implementation of the COLMs. The addition of COLMs in the laboratory is a potential method to address the need for clinical applications within the gross anatomy laboratory.