Experience of first year medical students in dissection hall

Background: Dissection of human cadavers has been central part of medical education since renaissance. Dissection has also been labelled as the royal road and cadaver as the first patient. First year medical students when encounter human cadavers for first time, faces a variety of emotional reactions and mixed feeling. Aim and objectives: For the assessment of impact of anxiety and physical symptoms from the experience of dissection hall, we prepared questionnaires to see whether emotional stress can be diminished and obsereved changes in feeling and attitude in first year medical students. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted on 180 first year medical students over 2 years (Batch 2013 and 2014) at Darbhanga medical college, Laheriasarai, Bihar, India. All the students were given 3 sets of questionnaire. The students were asked the answer in either yes or no. Results: The difference in the rate of anxiety initially and 3 months later was significant. Conclusion: For improving the attitude of the students towards cadaveric dissection there must be better teacher-students interaction which in turn will help in improving their mental status to handle the highest level of stress in clinical carrier.