The anatomy room: A positive learning experience for nursing students

Management of death and dying is an important aspect of nursing practice. Many nursing students have not been exposed to death prior to their commencement in nurse education and typically do not encounter dying and death until their clinical experience begins. To examine the effects and impact of exposure of nursing students to an anatomy room for anatomy teaching compared with students taught anatomy in a laboratory using plastic anatomical specimens. Two groups of first year nursing students were surveyed; one group received tuition in anatomy using plastic specimens and the second group used dissected cadavers. Questionnaires were administered before and immediately after the first teaching experience and again 9weeks later. Students studying anatomy using cadaveric specimens were more apprehensive of subsequent visits to the anatomy room. However, after 9weeks there was no significant difference when compared to students using plastic specimens. The students using cadavers felt significantly more stressed and reported significantly more symptoms than those using plastic specimens after their first lesson. There was no significant difference in stress levels and symptom reporting between the groups after 9weeks. While a large proportion of the students using both cadavers (97%) and plastic specimens (88%) found their learning experiences positive, 43% of the respondents using cadavers stated that as a result of this experience they felt more prepared to deal with death in a hospital and that they were happy to see death in a stress free environment. The responses from the group using plastic specimens were positive as essentially they had found the theory easier to learn. The results suggest that learning anatomy using cadavers is a beneficial learning experience and could be a valuable way to encounter death for the first time in a protected environment rather than in the clinical setting.