An innovative approach to supplement the teaching of the spatial gross anatomy relationships of muscles to undergraduates in health sciences

Satisfactory assessment of the musculoskeletal disorders in patients by health professionals, followed by diagnosis, treatment, and referral require a good understanding of spatial and three-dimensional (S&3D) anatomy of musculature. Meanwhile, the importance and impact of S&3D learning has been underscored. A novel method to promote S&3D skills in the learning of the musculature of the upper and lower limb was developed, and subsequently evaluated among 120 first-year Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy undergraduate students at the University of Cape Town. Outlines of human muscles were mapped onto A4 papers, digitalized into a 22-paged electronic document, labeled with anatomical details, and printed out. Each student was given a copy to cut out the diagrams and paste them correctly onto adult skeletons using Prestik (R), in what was called the muscle cut-out exercise (MCOE), just prior to each dissection practical. A questionnaire evaluating the MCOE was developed and 56 students responded. The students strongly agreed that the MCOE was useful in teaching them the spatial perspective of the human musculature. Forty-nine percent of the students felt that the size of the diagrams did not always match the skeletons due to variable sizes of the skeletons and 27% suggested the use of color as a means of enhancing the diagrams. The MCOE is a low-cost, enjoyable, time-efficient, easily reproducible, and hands-on practical learning experience.