Significance: As a cornerstone of undergraduate medical education (UME), cadaveric dissection presents a stark and often unsettling reality. The act of making deliberate incisions into the human body—cuts that, outside of this educational context, would be considered unnatural or violent—can evoke a variety of responses in students^1,2, including, anxiety, emotional distress, desensitization, and/or avoidance. However, dissection also offers a unique opportunity to reflect on and practice humanism that is central to their future clinical practice³. Similarly, anatomy educators are poised to be role models for mindful compassion³.  As such, our study proposes a formal program, titled Cadaveric Awareness and Learning through Mindfulness (CALM). Building on our preliminary pilot work (AY24-25), we integrate open awareness meditation (OAM) with our human dissection curriculum, supplemented with readings, reflections, and/or debriefing opportunities. While our work is centered on pre-clerkship medical students at University of Cincinnati (UC), it can be easily adopted by any medical school or health professions program utilizing cadaveric specimens (nursing, physical or occupational therapy, dentistry), including the Osher Collaborative, and thus can broadly and significantly advance integrative health education.

Innovation & Impact: While some institutions offer a reflective opportunity prior to students’ early anatomy encounters, these are often isolated experiences⁴. To our knowledge, a comprehensive program integrating mindful practice and dissection does not exist in UME.  Mindfulness-based interventions in UME reduce stress and student burnout⁵. As such, we aim to demonstrate the impact of CALM on reducing student stress, lowering dissection-related anxiety¹, and enhancing self-awareness.

Collaborators: This work will be conducted by key personnel across several disciplines: two mind-body trained physiology faculty (full professors), one anatomy education faculty (assistant professor), the Director of the UC Osher Center workplace mindfulness program (also a mental well-being coach and volunteer professor), and the UC Osher Center’s director. This work will be conducted at UC, with plans for early dissemination of materials and protocols to other Osher Centers (see below).

Goals and timeline: The specific goals of this project are:

1. Complete a full set of anatomic region-specific OAM scripts. [Aug 2025]
2. Create and provide an asynchronous (i.e., at-home) priming mindfulness tool. [Sept 2025]
3. Establish the CALM program: enroll and track program participants (UME students), distribute materials, coordinate OAMs prior to each dissection experience in the pre-clerkship curriculum. [Sept 2025-May 2026]
4. Evaluate the impact of CALM on participants vs. non-participants. [June 2026]. Data instruments: perceived stress scale (PSS), five facet mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews related to dissection avoidance.

Qualitative data from the pilot work provided feedback for improving acceptability (i.e., attendance) and enhancing the impact of the OAMs. Grant funding will permit our initial work to evolve into a comprehensive program (CALM), including creation of additional OAM scripts for a standardized approach, creation and distribution of the priming tool, and administration and evaluation of the program.

Dissemination of OAM scripts and guidance documents for setting up a CALM program will be available to other Osher Centers within the first six months of the project. Widespread dissemination of OAM scripts (accessible to all health professions programs) will be achieved by publishing in peer-reviewed, open-access journal for teaching and learning modules (e.g. MedEdPortal), acknowledging Osher Collaborative funding.

References:  ¹ Manyama et al. (2023) Anat Sci Educ 17: 1189;  ² Barrientos et al (2019) Anat Sci Educ 12: 300;  ³ Rizzolo (2002) Anatomical Record 269: 242;  ⁴ Abrams et al (2020) Anat Sci Educ 14: 658;  ⁵ Daya and Hearn (2018). Med Teacher 40 (2): 146