Anatomy Results in Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy: Why the Discrepancy?

Abstract

This study considers possible reasons for a small but recurring discrepancy between the second year anatomy results of occupational therapy and physiotherapy undergraduate students in Trinity College, Dublin. These students follow the same course together and sit a common examination, yet the physiotherapy students consistently achieve higher marks than the occupational therapy students. Two consecutive years of students, in total 115, were targeted and the results of their anatomy marks were compared with their university entrance points, by mean, to see if there was any correlation between the two. In addition, the question of the relevancy of anatomy (and, indeed, of four other basic sciences) to each profession was looked at. Students answered a ‘relevance questionnaire’ based on the pair comparison method and the results from these questionnaires were compared by graph.

The results show that there is little correlation between entrance points and the anatomy results for both sets of students. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that the students' perceived relevance of anatomy to their profession may account for the discrepancy, in that the physiotherapy students feel that anatomy is more relevant than do the occupational therapy students.