Self-assessed efficacy of a clinical musculoskeletal anatomy workshop: A preliminary survey.

OBJECTIVE: To survey the efficacy of a practical workshop on clinical musculoskeletal anatomy held in five American countries. METHODS: A self-assessment competence questionnaire sent to participants 1-3 months after the workshop. Results were compared to the results of a practical, instructor-assessed, pre-workshop test. RESULTS: The response rate of participants was 76.4%. The overall, self-assessed competence score for anatomical items that had been included in the pre-test was 76.9 (scale 0-100) as compared to an overall score of 48.1 in the practical, pre-workshop test (p<0.001). For items that were addressed in the workshop, but not included in the pre-test, self-assessed competence was rated at 62.9. Differences in anatomical knowledge between individuals from different countries and professional groups noted in the practical pre-test were no longer present in the post-test self-assessment. CONCLUSIONS: From this preliminary data and supporting evidence from the literature we believe that our anatomy workshop provides an effective didactic tool for increasing competence in musculoskeletal anatomy.