Rural Residentially-Delivered, Surgeon-Facilitated, Gross Topographical Anatomy by Dissection for Surgical Trainees: The First Australasian Course, its Conduct and Evaluation

For nine years, the author has conducted, annually, a highly regarded course in whole body, gross topographical regional anatomy by surgeon-facilitated dissection, with some application, for surgical trainees at basic and advanced levels of College training. Daily commuting and "hospital-call distractions" were "survey-negatives" for the Sydney course. In 2008, the inaugural Australasian, surgeon-facilitated, rural residential whole body dissection course was conducted at the School of Rural Medicine, University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W. Course-candidates were pre- SET, SET, and "more advanced" trainees – products of anatomy-deficient curricula. As for all previous courses, candidates were surveyed and tested before, and after, the course. Pre-course surveys examined the undergraduate curriculum – anatomy taught, its mode of teaching; teachers; surgical experience and hospital-resident's surgical experience/rotations; procedures undertaken, success in procedure-execution, knowledge of "anatomy of the procedure" and pre-course-preparation. At registration, a regional anatomy "relations known" test was delivered. The whole-body dissection course involved, "region" lecture, facilitated regional bones/prosection examination, regional dissection. Resident candidates shared meals, joined evening "study groups", and accessed "school" material after-hours. An extensive examination, covering regional anatomy, bones and images, followed by "feed-back", and a post-course survey related to course-structure, teaching, "dissection-experience", "value" of dissection and residential "experience", was conducted.