title: The attitudes of medical students in Europe toward the clinical importance of embryology.
abstract: Although there have been many studies reporting the attitudes of medical students to the clinical importance of gross anatomy, little is known about their opinions concerning the clinical importance of embryology. Using Thurstone and Chave methods to assess attitudes, nearly 1,600 medical students across Europe in the early stages of their training provided responses to a survey that tested the hypothesis that they do not regard embryology as highly clinically relevant. Indeed, we further proposed that student attitudes to gross anatomy are much more positive than those toward embryology. Our findings show that our hypotheses hold, regardless of the university and country surveyed and regardless of the teaching methods employed for embryology. Clearly, embryology has a significant part to play in medical education in terms of understanding prenatal life, of appreciating how the organization of the mature human body has developed, and of providing essential information for general medical practice, obstetrics and pediatrics, and teratology. However, while newly recruited medical students understand the importance of gross anatomy in the development of professional competence, understanding the importance of embryology requires teachers, medical educationalists, and devisors of medical curricula to pay special attention to informing students of the significant role played by embryology in attaining clinical competence and achieving the knowledge and understanding of the biomedical sciences that underpins becoming a learned member of a health care profession.
authors.affiliation: Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3AX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bernard John
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Moxham
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Histology-Embryology and Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece.
authors.forename: Elpida
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Emmanouil-Nikoloussi
authors.affiliation: Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3AX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Henrietta
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Standley
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy, (Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology), Medical University of Innsbruck, Müllerstrasse 59, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.affiliation: University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, URDIA, EA 4465, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Odile
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Plaisant
authors.affiliation: First Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Histology and Embryology, Charles University Prague, Albertov 4, 128 01 Prague 2, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brichova
authors.affiliation: NOVA Medical School |Faculty of Medical Sciences, NOVA University of Lisbon, Campo Dos Martires Da Patria 130, Lisboa, 1169-056, Portugal.
authors.forename: Diogo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pais
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Malta, Tal Qroqq, Msida, Malta.
authors.forename: Isobel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stabile
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Malta, Tal Qroqq, Msida, Malta.
authors.forename: Jordy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.affiliation: Department of Morphological Sciences, Division of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, C. Davila University, Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chirculescu
mesh_terms: D004626:Embryology / Q000193:education*; D005060:Europe; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: anatomy; attitudes; embryology; medical students; student attitudes