Students' approaches to learning anatomy: The road to better teaching and learning

Introduction: The quality of medical and nursing student's anatomical knowledge and their experience in learning anatomy assists them in their health-care professions and it is largely influenced by their approach to learning. The main aim of this study was to investigate medical and nursing students' approach to learning anatomy at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. Material and Methods: This survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 students. The Study Process Questionnaire was used to measure students approach to learning anatomy. The association between the approach to learning anatomy and demographic information such as gender, previous anatomical knowledge, and academic performance was also analyzed. Results: Of the 250 distributed questionnaires, 205 completed questionnaires were obtained with an 82% response rate. The analysis revealed that the deep approach (DA) mean score was significantly higher than the surface approach (SA) mean score for medical and nursing students, collectively (34.81 vs. 28.62, P < 0.05), medical students alone (34.96 vs. 26.83, P < 0.05), and nursing students alone (34.62 vs. 30.62, P < 0.05). There was no association between the approach to learning anatomy and gender among medical students nor nursing students. There was a positive correlation between the DA score and both the overall academic performance (r = 0.33, P < 0.01) and the performance in a previous anatomy course (r = 0.33, P < 0.01). Discussion and Conclusion: The results provide important feedback to anatomy teachers and students for effective teaching and learning anatomy. The study also provides baseline data for future research on factors influencing students' approaches to learning anatomy.