Assessment of the knowledge, attitude, and practice of medical students towards the importance of cadaver & its handling in ethical standards during procurement, transportation, injection, dissection and caring process in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Cadaver dissection involves far more than the acquisition of anatomical knowledge. It has a role in the development of professionalism; is a major shaper of attitudes such as respect, mortality, privilege and the requirement to share knowledge; and helps to shape caring and responsible professionals who are reflective and show the attributes for effective self-assessment. The use of human body for medical and scientific research is a sensitive issue & any-thing involving human body is ethically acceptable. Objective: To assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of medical students towards the importance of cadaver & its handling in ethical standards during procurement, transportation, injection, dissection and caring process in Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted from April 01 to April 30, 2018. The data were collected from 279 respondents enrolled PCII at the School of Medical Sciences of the Jimma University, Addis Ababa University, St. Paul University and University of Gondar, selected by simple random sampling technique after allocating the total sample to each Institution proportionally. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed to identify significant variable of cadaver dissection based on ethical standards. Results: A total of 279 respondents were included in the study out of whom 156 (55.9%) were male and 123(44.1%) were female and most of the respondents were in the age groups of 21-30 years (SD = 0.492 and variance=o.242; range, 20–30 years). The study results indicated that 98.6% of the study participants had cadaver dissection session and cadaver was important to learn gross Anatomy, 235(84.2%) students reported that the smell of formalin is depressing. The study result showed that about 45.5% of the study participants had adequate knowledge, about 48.7% of the study participants had favorable attitude, and about 39.1% of the study participants had good practice about the cadaver dissection based on ethical standards to learn Anatomy, respectively. From the results of the present study, one might confidently infer that cadaver dissection is still considered important and indispensable in the study of human anatomy