Virtual Anatomy Classes among the First and Second Year Medical and Dental Students of a Medical College: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: The pandemic of COVID-19 affected every single person in the world. This pandemic also affected the academics of medical and dental colleges of Nepal. In these conditions, the virtual study was used as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 period, with an adaptation to the "new normal" to deliver preclinical medical education. This has brought both challenges and opportunities to medical education. The objective of the study is to find out whether the anatomy virtual classes were helpful among the first and second year medical and dental students of a medical college. METHODS: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 206 first and second-year medical and dental students of a medical college between 1st May 2021-31st May 2021 after getting the ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Committee (reference no. KMC-IRC 0504202109). The convenient sampling was done. The data were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 20 version. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. RESULTS: Out of the total 206 students, 173 (84%) (78.99-89.01 at 95% Confidence Interval) found that virtual anatomy classes were not helpful for the study of the anatomy classes. CONCLUSIONS: From the study, we conclude that more than half of the students found that virtual classes were not helpful for the study of anatomy classes. Students have difficulty in studying dissection, cadaveric, and embryological structures via virtual classes. Physical class is better for studying anatomy than virtual classes for medical and dental students.