Cadaver-dissection-related Stress Is Linked to Students' Learning Conditions: A Cross-sectional Study of Students and Graduates from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Body : Introduction and objective: Students describe cadaver dissection (CD) as exciting and stressful. However, new teaching strategies continue to target reducing cadaver-dissection-related stress. This study hypothesized that cadaver-dissection-related stress might be associated with poor learning conditions. It examined the relationship between students' perceptions of CD and some learning conditions during CD.
Materials and methods: This study is a part of a multicountry study on 'cadaver dissection, stress, and background music' covering sixty-eight medical schools from nine Sub-Saharan African countries. This cross-sectional study included medical students and graduates exposed to CD. A self-administered questionnaire (https://forms.app/judennaka/BM-in-dissection) was used as the survey tool to collect relevant data on some CD learning conditions for four months through various online channels, including email, Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Two thousand nine hundred sixty-eight (2968) surveys were proportionally and systematically selected and analyzed using SPSS version 23. All respondents gave their consent before taking part in the survey.
Results: About half (48.76%) of the participants perceived CD as stressful, while 51.24% thought otherwise. However, 60% of participants in institutions where a cadaver session lasts three hours described their experience as stressful, whereas 70% of participants whose institution spent less than one hour in a single CD session agreed that CD is not stressful. Similarly, 65% of participants from institutions with a student-cadaver ratio of 5:1 described their experience as 'not stressful'. In comparison, 60% of participants from institutions with a student-cadaver ratio of 10–20 students per cadaver described their experience as stressful. Audio-visual aid was not available to 75.29% of the participants, although 36.67% and 24.25% described the availability of tutors/instructors as "always present" and "often present," respectively. Anatomage (32.64%) and prosection (28.40%) were the most common alternatives alongside CD, although 32.18% reported that no other alternatives were used alongside traditional CD in their institutions.
Conclusion: Students from institutions with CD instructors, shorter CD sessions, and a smaller student-cadaver ratio are more likely to perceive CD as stress-free. Providing more support for students during CD and reducing time for CD may be an antidote to cadaver-dissection-related stress.
Significance/implication: Some unfavorable learning conditions persist as a source of stress to CD amongst medical students and graduates from medical schools in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, medical institutions teaching anatomy courses must consider reviewing their learning strategies to reduce CD-related stress. These should include reducing the time allocated for a CD session, access to tutors during CD, and reducing time for a CD session to reduce the student-cadaver ratio. However, these modifications' implications for the cost and quality of learning remain unascertained and should be considered.