Background: Human body is the most perfect atlas of human anatomy. Body donation after death is, next to donation of organs for the purpose of transplantation, another most altruistic act, which significantly influences the future of medicine, as regards teaching of anatomy and clinical disciplines. Because students are mainly the beneficiaries of corpse donations, it appears important to learn about their attitudes to this altruistic act. The purpose was to assess the awareness and attitudes of students of nursing and physiotherapy towards body donation for educational and scientific purposes.
Materials and methods: A total of 128 Polish students (110 women and 18 men) from the faculties of nursing and physiotherapy of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland took part in the questionnaire study. The average age in respective groups was 19.94 ± 0.34 years of age in case of nursing and 19.93 ± 0.25 years of age in case of physiotherapy. The first part of the proprietary questionnaire concerned classes in body dissection conducted in prosectorium and their significance for teaching anatomy. The second part applied to the programme of Conscious Body Donation, attitudes towards the body in prosectorium and the approach to body donation for educational and scientific purposes.
Results: The results of the study indicate that students from both faculties are in favour of body donation after death for educational and scientific purposes. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of them expressed the willingness to become body donators. The main reasons for the reluctance to do so included psychological barrier and concern for the family.
Conclusions: Most of students who responded to the questionnaire support the idea of body donation for educational and scientific purposes after death, yet they appear to be more willing to donate their organs for transplantation than their bodies for educational or scientific purposes after death. There are numerous factors which influence students' attitude to body donation. More emphasis should be put on educating students, which could contribute to changing their attitude toward that altruistic act, and in consequence may increase the number of donors in the future.
Keywords: anatomy; cadaver; nursing; physiotherapy; students; whole body donation.