title: Psychological impact of cadavers and prosections on physiotherapy and occupational therapy students.
abstract: The short and long term impact of exposure to cadavers and prosections was examined with 114 occupational therapy and physiotherapy students attending the Auckland Institute of Technology. Pre-exposure measures included a shortened version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist to assess general distress, and an event-specific apprehension questionnaire. Thirty per cent of students exhibited a post-traumatic stress reaction as measured by the Impact of Event Scale. Eighteen months later, 7 per cent still exhibited symptoms of stress. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that high general distress, high event-specific apprehension and being a member of the physiotherapy student group were associated with high scores on the Impact of Event Scale. These findings indicate that the cadaver experience had a significant impact on these students, although the effect diminished over time.
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy Faculty of Health Studies, Auckland Institute of Technology, Auckland, 1020, New Zealand. dene.hancock@ait.ac.nz
authors.forename: Dene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hancock
authors.forename: Maynard
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Antony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taylor