Feedback on the usefulness of an illustrated guidebook in an anatomical dissection course

Purpose Dissection provides direct experience in anatomy, which constitutes an essential discipline for medical students. For this purpose, we created a dissection guide for students in the 2nd-year of medical studies at the Grenoble University School of Medicine. The objective was to evaluate this tool of reverse pedagogy in terms of student satisfaction and educational interest. Methods Every 2nd-year student takes four sessions of limb dissection. To assist this dissection course, we developed a photographic guide launched in 2013. It includes an introduction presenting a methodology for dissection, followed by detailed protocols for each dissection area. Each step is illustrated with captioned photographs associated with a concise explanatory text. A questionnaire was then sent to 242 students to assess the impact of this tool and their overall satisfaction. Results Overall student satisfaction with this guidebook was rated 8.1 out of 10 with a 93.2% with significant improvement (p = 0.0137) and 78.7% of them declaring they had a better understanding of anatomy and mastery of the dissection techniques, respectively. In addition, students assessed the usefulness of the dissection guide at 3.6 out of 4 with the relevance of the content and presentation judged at 3.4 out of 4. Finally, the exam scores increased significantly with use of the guidebook (p < 0.0001). Conclusions Students deemed the organization of this anatomy tutorial as highly satisfactory, and using the guidebook as a reference in dissection sessions allowed students to prepare for the dissection and improve their knowledge of anatomy, as demonstrated by improved exam scores.