The five finger method: A novel approach to teach selected topics of human anatomy

Background: Anatomy is considered by many students as a difficult and uninteresting subject, and often students do not retain what they learn. Learning Anatomy requires both remembering the facts and understanding. In an effort to make remembering certain topics easier, more interesting and understandable for students, we used innovative methods of effective teaching. One such method is the "five finger method", in which five fingers of the hand are used to explain and understand certain topics. Methods and Material: The "Five Finger Method" is used to teach the superficial muscles of the front forearm, abnormal positions of the appendix and certain other topics of human anatomy. Following the "Five Finger Method" teaching sessions feedback of students (n=98) was taken using a structured Likert scale type of questionnaire. Results: The student feedback showed higher scores (where score 5 is strongly agree and score 1 is strongly disagree) for items like an innovative method of teaching (Likert scale score 4.01/5), useful in making the class interesting (Likert scale score 4.05/5), useful for students during self-study / revision (Likert scale score 4.06/5), useful in understanding the topic (Likert scale score 3.77/5), can be used for teaching topics of other disciplines (Likert scale score 4.09/5). Conclusions: Based on the student feedback it can be stated that "Five Finger Method" is a useful method of teaching which makes the topic interesting and helps in understanding it and this method may be used to teach certain topics in other disciplines.