Inside Out: Role of Body Painting in Learning Human Anatomy-An experience from a Public and Private Medical College

Abstract

Objective: This study was planned to evaluate the role of body painting in short-term retention of knowledge and to assess students’ perception of this activity in a public and private medical college.

Methods: This interventional study was conducted in a private and public medical college in the month of September and October 2023. The students of MBBS 1st year from the 2 colleges were invited to participate in the study and those who volunteered were randomly divided by the balloting method into 2 equal groups: control and intervention. The control group was given a traditional lecture with the help of a Power point presentation, on the course and markings of the nerves and vessels of the hand and forearm. The intervention group was given an interactive body painting demonstration, with hands-on practice of painting the same vessels and nerves on each other. At the end of these sessions, the students attempted a multiple-choice-question paper and the results were compared using SPSS version 21.00. A questionnaire was also filled by the intervention group to pro- vide the students’ perception of the activity.

Results: There was no significant difference between the mean multiple-choice-question scores of the control and intervention group. More than 85% of the students from both the colleges strongly agreed that the session was enjoyable and interesting and also 80% and beyond of students also believed that the exercise would help them to retain knowledge.

Conclusion: The study concluded that there was a negligible difference in knowledge retention be- tween the intervention group and the control group. However, the results of the questionnaire strongly suggested the use of the body painting technique in anatomy curricular teaching as it has proven to stimulate knowledge retention by enhancing students’ interest, active participation and peer learning.