Nursing, physician assistant and anatomy faculty members, along with anatomy teaching assistants came together to offer an engaged, interdisciplinary learning opportunity to nursing students utilizing the "silent teachers" in the Anatomical Gift Program.
Elon University Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) and Bachelor of Science (BSN) in Nursing students visited the “silent teachers” in the School of Health Sciences Anatomical Gift Program donor lab on Sept. 3 and Sept. 5.
The goal was to learn more about the reproductive system, the link between its anatomical structures and the common signs and symptoms women experience while pregnant, as well as the link between these structures and potential pregnancy complications.
The Elon’s Anatomical Gift Program allows individuals to donate their bodies for research when they die and become “silent teachers” for Elon students. Whole body donations are used to teach undergraduate biology students who are interested in pursuing graduate degrees in healthcare and graduate students in the Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant programs.
The students are enrolled in Professor of Nursing Jeanmarie Koonts’ Reproductive Health nursing course. As part of an interdisciplinary, engaged learning opportunity in her Reproductive Health course, Koonts asked Dr. Cindy Bennett, associate professor of physician assistant studies, who teaches anatomy and was an OB/GYN before coming to Elon, Matthew Clark, associate professor of biology and coordinator of the undergraduate anatomy TEATAPS (Elon Anatomy Teaching Assistants) program and the Anatomical Gift Program to provide the students with an opportunity to experience the donor lab.
This experience marked the first time the ABSN students had experienced the donor lab and served to reintroduce the BSN students with the donor lab having last interacted with donors in their first-year anatomy course. Using four of the “silent teachers” and together with assistance from faculty and TEATAPS stationed at each donor, students located the reproductive structures and discussed their role as well as the interaction and interference of structures in proximity. Armed with this visual, students take this knowledge and work to apply it throughout the semester, often referring to “remember what we saw.”
Students reflected on the opportunity to “understand what’s happening on the inside” positively and express their gratitude to the individuals who, in their selfless act, donated their bodies to the Anatomical Gift Program at Elon University to advance healthcare education.