Objectives: Human anatomy is a core discipline taught in medical curricula. However, it is widely speculated that anatomy is learnt only to pass the examinations and is not required in clinical practice thereafter. In this study, perceived importance and relevance of anatomy knowledge was assessed among practicing doctors in Sri Lanka.
Methods: A self-administered google-form-questionnaire was used in a random sample (n=500) consisting of three categories of medical doctors; postgraduate students (100), general medical officers (300) and specialist or consultant doctors (100) in different clinical disciplines in Sri Lanka. The perceived importance was marked on a 5-point Likert scale (not at all important (1), not important (2), neutral (3), important (4), very important (5)) and Chi square test was used for statistics.
Results: Overall response rate was 72%, and most of the respondents were postgraduate students (93%). Average age of the sample was 30.2 years, and the most of them were males. The perception of ‘very important & important’ were significantly higher among postgraduate students (92.4%) and specialists (82%) compared to general doctors. Paradoxically, the neutral perception and the perception of not important were highest among the general doctors (20.3%, 13.3% respectively).
Conclusion: A significant majority of the postgraduate students and specialists expressed that anatomy was important for the medical curriculum reflecting their subsequent need of basic sciences for the exams and for clinical practice. However, the general doctors’ trend was a paradoxical perception that the importance of anatomy knowledge is either neutral, not important or not at all important.
Keywords: Likert scale; clinical practice; human anatomy; medical doctors
Ethical statement: Institutional ethical clearance was obtained.