Neuroanatomy education in Australian and New Zealand medical schools

INTRODUCTION: Medical student knowledge of central and peripheral nervous system anatomy may be below an acceptable level. This leads to lower confidence of junior doctors in managing neurological conditions and unsafe medical practice. To improve knowledge acquisition and retention, many innovative (largely digital) teaching techniques have been designed. There is no instructional curriculum for use of these tools, and it is up to the discretion of the academic for how they are applied. This study aims to assess the content, instruction and assessment of neuroanatomy in Australia and New Zealand medical schools. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An electronic survey was sent to 24 Australia and New Zealand medical schools. Academics were asked to comment on the course, content, instruction and assessment of neuroanatomy for the 2018 academic year. RESULTS: The majority (22/24, 91.7%) of medical schools responded. The average time dedicated to teaching neuroanatomy was 46.0 hours (±38.1) with a range of 12 h to 160 h. In regards to traditional teaching techniques, prosections (77%) and models (77%), were used by most universities. Dissection was utilized by 13/22 (59%) universities. Incorporation of new technologies was highly variable, the most common being 3D software (59%) and eBook (55%). Adoption of virtual reality technologies was low (36%). CONCLUSION: Methods of teaching neuroanatomy were highly variable between institutions. There is a need for an evidence‐based instructional curriculum to better standardize the teaching of this important basic science. Future research may be conducted into examining whether this variable methodology leads to a difference in graduate student knowledge of neuroanatomy.