Abstract
Background: Human anatomy education is required in all South African chiropractic courses as part of the undergraduate curriculum. There is very little evidence on graduates’ assessments of their anatomy training's adequacy and usefulness to their practice. The aim of this study was to assess South African chiropractors' impressions of the relevance and sufficiency of anatomy training for clinical practice, as well as to examine their perspectives on the usefulness of the instructional tools and strategies used throughout their pre-professional training.
Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was administered to a sample of South African chiropractors to assess the adequacy of their anatomical science training (gross anatomy, histology, neuroanatomy, and embryology), the clinical relevance of each sub-discipline to the individual and the perceived usefulness of each of the various anatomy teaching resources used.
Results: A total of 113 completed surveys were returned from an estimated 296 chiropractors in the specific provinces (estimated 37.2% response rate). The respondents were representative in terms of sex (61.5% female) but not age, with younger generations being overrepresented (peak age group 26-35, 54.5%). The majority of the survey respondents obtained their chiropractic qualification in South Africa (96.4%) and graduated between the years 2011-2021 with the majority being in clinical practice for less than three years (24.8%). Respondents were more likely to have undertaken anatomy training in the Faculty of Health Sciences (85.5%). The participants perceived the following areas as “most relevant” for clinical practice: gross anatomy (98.3% of respondents agreeing) and neuroanatomy (98.1% of respondents agreeing), followed by embryology (44.0%) and histology (29.6%). Respondents also perceived their training to be “most adequate” in gross anatomy (99.1%) and neuroanatomy (88.9%) followed by histology (77.9%) and embryology (71.3%). Respondents acknowledged having used
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a variety of anatomy teaching tools and strategies during their chiropractic training and placing a high priority on access to cadavers and medical imaging.
Conclusions: The majority of respondents indicated that anatomy was highly relevant to their clinical setting and that it was sufficiently taught in a variety of educational contexts. These findings will help educators improve the content and skills of anatomy course offerings in order to maximise their usefulness in chiropractic clinical practice.
Keywords: Anatomy, Chiropractic, Education.