127 - Compassion in the Cadaver Lab: Lessons Learned from a Transgender Donor When Gross Anatomy and Gender Identity Intersect
Sunday, March 24, 2024
5:00pm – 7:00pm US EDT
Location: Sheraton Hall
Poster Board Number: 127
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour
Co-authors:
Chelsea Lohman - Cell and Developmental Biology - University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Graduate Student University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Boulder, Colorado, United States
Abstract Body : Transgender people seeking medical care often encounter providers who are not only uninformed about diverse gender identities, but who are also emotionally detached or resistant to providing gender-affirming care. As learning from cadaveric donors is a fundamental part of the education of future clinicians, lab-based gross anatomy courses can be an opportunity to foster empathy. Students who learn from or dissect cadaveric donors generally have baseline feelings of compassion towards the donors they dissect, but studies suggest that learning about the donors’ personal lives can lead to higher levels of compassion towards them. It is currently unknown how working with a transgender donor affects student compassion in contrast to working with a cisgender donor. Further, many gross anatomy courses have transitioned to a virtual approach, sometimes in lieu of providing students with any cadaveric experience. While there are numerous studies comparing educational outcomes between students who learn gross anatomy on cadavers and those who learn on virtual models, there is limited research evaluating compassion towards donors in these groups. This study aims to investigate whether there is a difference in compassion levels between students who engage with a transgender donor who received gender affirming care compared to a cisgender donor, and whether a difference exists when the engagement takes place in-person or virtually. A convenience sample of 30 graduate students enrolled in a gross anatomy dissection course will be recruited for this study. In January 2024, as part of their lab orientation, participants will perform a full-body, autopsy-protocol external examination on a donor either in-person or virtually. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four groups: 1) in-person cisgender, 2) in-person transgender, 3) virtual cisgender, and 4) virtual transgender. Groups will be given a pre- and a post-survey to quantify compassion levels for the donors before and after the visual autopsy examination. The survey consists of a combination of Likert, semantic, multiple choice and open-ended questions, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis will be conducted. Results will be analyzed to gain more insight into which factors lead to increased compassion in graduate students. This study has the potential to expand our current understanding of the intersection between compassion for gender identity, gender affirming care, and the dissection of human cadaveric donors. These results will guide future research and teaching methods and help educators understand differences between in-person and virtual learning with the goal of increasing compassion in gross anatomy students, and consequently, in future healthcare providers.
