Importance of Anatomy Education on Electrotherapy Lectures in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Curricula: Student Perceptions of a Foundation University

Abstract

Student opinions are important to improve the physiotherapy and rehabilitation curriculum, and to maintain the quality of education. This study aimed to evaluate the students' perception levels related to anatomy education in terms of electrotherapy lectures. Third and fourth-year physiotherapy students (61 female, 43 male) have voluntarily participated in this study. The data were obtained by a survey, which consists of 29 closed-ended (15 Likert-type questions) questions. The average age was 21.82 +/- 1.62 years. The grade point average of the participants, which is based on the 4-point scale, is 2.33 +/- 0.44 points. There was no difference between the genders in terms of the grade point averages (p = 0.78). Students stated that the anatomy knowledge of the musculoskeletal system is extremely important in terms of electrotherapy lectures. This is followed by the nervous system and the circulatory system, respectively. They also stated that they need more anatomy knowledge during motor point stimulation applications (50%), and less anatomy knowledge during ultrasound applications (15.38%). In the results of Likert-type survey, first and second highest scores were pertained to "I need anatomy knowledge when inserting electrodes" and "The knowledge which is obtained from anatomy lectures affect to the motor nerve stimulations" (1.42 +/- 0.67 and 1.40 +/- 0.66, respectively, p < 0.05) and the least score was pertained to "I need to look at my anatomy notes before the electrotherapy exams" (0.41 +/- 0.88, p < 0.05). The results from this s