Benefits of a bilingual web-based anatomy atlas for nursing students in learning anatomy

BACKGROUND: Registered nurses are required for high-quality healthcare. Thus, the anatomy course is essential regarding professional knowledge of the human body during the nursing training process. However, previous studies have indicated that anatomy teaching time and anatomy teachers were reduced and insufficient. Therefore, to improve the learning of practical anatomy in response to these difficulties, a bilingual National Taiwan University web-based anatomy atlas (NTU-WAA) was created as a cross-platform application and its feasibility was evaluated. METHODS: The comparison of anatomy examination scores between nursing students of two cohorts (66 from the 2018–2019 cohort, whom was without NTU-WAA application; 54 from the 2019–2020 cohort, to whom NTU-WAA was offered) and the evaluation of questionnaires collected from nursing students of the 2019–2020 cohort and 4 anatomy teachers were carried out to define the feasibility of this strategy. RESULTS: Results obtained by nursing students for the 2019–2020 cohort showed a significant increase in anatomy learning performance compared with that of the 2018–2019 cohort with reference to the laboratory midterm [2018–2019 cohort vs. 2019–2020 cohort, mean (standard deviation, SD): 77.20 (16.14) vs. 81.80 (12.03); p = 0.043], the laboratory final examination [59.68 (15.28) vs. 80.35 (13.74); p < 0.001] and the theory final examination [80.85 (10.10) vs. 84.33 (6.925); p = 0.017]. Moreover, results of the questionnaires indicated that the new bilingual cross-platform atlas was highly accepted by students and teachers. CONCLUSIONS: The NTU-WAA, a bilingual web-based atlas, was evaluated as a beneficial anatomy-learning tool that may enhance self-study of nursing students with consequent amelioration of their anatomy-related performance in both theoretical and laboratory examinations. This reflection suggests the future implementation of the bilingual web-based atlas on a large scale. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03405-8.