Who is teaching anatomy? An examination of the demographic characteristics, academic backgrounds, and professional responsibilities of US anatomy teachers

Abstract

Given the demand for anatomy instruction, it is imperative to understand the current cohort of anatomy teachers. This study aimed to delineate the demographic characteristics, academic backgrounds, and professional responsibilities of United States (U.S.) anatomy teachers. A survey was sent to teachers who were identified by their professional membership profiles. Results from 654 responses indicated that 45% of respondents identified as female and 67% identified as white. Most (68%) respondents had an academic doctoral degree. On average, respondents had completed graduate coursework in approximately half of the traditional anatomical sciences subdisciplines. However, approximately 40% of respondents with graduate/professional teaching responsibilities lacked graduate coursework in histology, neuroanatomy, and/or embryology, while approximately 70% of respondents without graduate/professional teaching responsibilities lacked similar coursework. Survey participants reported an assigned time effort of 58% teaching, 16% research, 10% service, and 10% administration and a perceived time effort of 56% teaching, 13% research, 10% service, and 12% administration. Perceived and assigned time efforts were significantly different (p ≤ 0.04) for administrative, research, and teaching responsibilities. Significant differences (p ≤ 0.03) also existed amongst participants regarding assigned administrative and teaching time effort and perceived administrative, service, and teaching time effort. Given these findings, we are concerned about protected research time for and the subdiscipline education of anatomy teachers. As such, we provide potential solutions for increasing protected research time and pursuing additional subdiscipline education. We also speculate about the potential impact of the now decades-long anatomy educator shortage on anatomy teacher responsibilities.