Purpose
Compassion, empathy, and respect for future patients are fundamental to medical education and critical components of anatomy training. Students report viewing cadavers as the ultimate teachers, as learning from them is a gift achieved without clinical skills. However, viewing cadavers as their first patient fosters their transition to a clinician by encouraging maturity and understanding cadaver privacy. There are limited empirical studies that have examined these contrasting perceptions. The aim of this study was to determine if medical students were more comfortable with the student-teacher association rather than assuming a clinician role early in their education.

Methods
Medical students (n=30) across two cohorts were surveyed following completion of an elective dissection course between the first and second years in the curriculum. Students rated their perceptions of the cadaver using a Likert scale from 0-10 (e.g., 0 = “Doctor”, 10 = “Teacher”). Mean values and standard deviations were calculated for questionnaire items. Space for optional comments was available for each item.

Results
Overall, students considered cadavers to be teachers rather than patients (7.54 ±1.28). Specifically, they felt that during this stage of their training, the student-teacher association was more approachable (7.97 ±0.95), enhanced the formation of a relationship with the cadaver (7.33 ±1.47), and encouraged the development of compassion and empathy for future patients (7.33 ±1.27).

Conclusions
Medical students’ perceptions of the cadaver could set the tone for future patient care. Students expressed challenges in thinking like a “doctor” with a cadaver, stating that their goal was to learn in this setting. Despite this trend, some also commented that both associations were equally important and either option would instill respect and empathy. Hence, anatomy faculty should highlight the role of the cadaver as a teacher during the medical curriculum as this significantly impacts the professional development of students.