Cadavers in anatomy classes: opinions of the students of Bursa Uludağ University School of Medicine

Year 2019, Volume: 13 Issue: 1, 49 - 55, 29.04.2019

Nilgün Tuncel Çini Serdar Babacan İlker Mustafa Kafa Sezer Erer Kafa

Abstract

Objectives: Informing the medical students about the ethical aspects related to human cadavers has been an important
issue that should be taken into consideration by anatomists. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the opinions of the
students of the School of Medicine of Bursa Uludağ University, Turkey on the cadavers, prior to the anatomy education, and
to determine the changes in attitudes towards the dead human body after basic and compulsory anatomy courses.

Methods: The first-year class students of the School of Medicine of Bursa Uludağ University were included in the study. The
questionnaire was applied before and after the education on cadavers in Topographic Anatomy Committee. The on-line survey
form was created and the link address was shared with e-mail and social media. Statistical analyses of the obtained data were
performed using the SPSS 22.0 program.

Results: The first questionnaire was answered by 297 students and the second questionnaire by 212 students. In the survey
applied before the anatomy education in Topographic Anatomy Committee, the percentage of positive opinions (agree and
strongly agree) on “Human is a valuable asset. For this reason, the human body must be valued and respected during life and
after death” was found to be 83.8% and this percentage increased to 95.3% in the later survey.

Conclusion: Anatomy education can not be effective without cadavers. We believe that the current study will be useful for
educators in order to contribute to the medical students’ awareness of humanity and privacy. 

Keywords

cadaver; ethics; medical students; survey

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