# Evaluation of Effectiveness of Digital Technologies During Anatomy Learning in Nursing School
## 1 Introduction  
The nursing profession has evolved over the years as society and the focus on the quality of life of the patient has changed.  
In Europe, the curricula of nursing schools deeply changed after the Bologna declaration in 1999, with the movement of the educational role of students to the universities and colleges, and consequently gave nursing education a bachelor's degree level.  
Therefore, the curricula of the nursing degree changed with the integration of biosciences topics that are taught as separate disciplines mostly in the first year of nursing school. These disciplines, which are mostly new to the student population, are difficult to be faced by the nursing students, generating anxiety and increasing the stress levels [1].  
Indeed, the introduction of disciplines such as biology, genetics, histology, physiology, and anatomy saw the rise of the \"bioscience problems\": the difficulty for nursing students to face the bioscience curricula and the retention of the acquired knowledge through the course study and their professional role [2].  
In particular, anatomy is seen as a challenging course, due to its wide range of terminology and new notions to be learned from a student population that comes from a varied educational background [3].  
Anatomy is also considered the fundamental basic knowledge of all health professions, providing all the most accurate morphological information crucial for an accurate clinical practice in all disciplines [4; 5; 6; 7].  
Being that anatomy is included in the bioscience curricula, nursing students show, as reported in literature [8; 9], difficulties in learning and passing the exam, though anatomical knowledge is fundamental in the daily clinical nursing practice [2].  
Feeling unprepared in this subject matter may result in a nurse who is afraid to deal with the daily work-tasks. Consequently, the quality of treatment given to the patients may be negatively affected [10].  
Over the years different teaching methods have been used, mostly to lower the anxiety of the nursing student in facing the anatomy course and to put them in the very best condition to pass the exams with a solid anatomical knowledge [11].  
The \"how to teach anatomy\" is a current and debated topic in literature: anatomists propose different approaches to fit in the limited hours available in the nursing school curricula, including providing models, cadaveric material, interactive laboratories, use of e-learning platform, and senior tutoring.  
[PERSON] started with providing dissection laboratory experience, with the aim to provide to nursing students an enhanced experience of anatomy learning, with a positive appreciation from the students [12].  
Later [PERSON] et al. proposed a hands-on learning anatomy course, with group discussion, to meet the needs of the nursing students, with positive feedback at the end of the course [13].  
The new technologies currently available allow identification of the preferred learning style of the modern students and allow diversifying the teaching style of the courses considered as obstacles in the degree curricula.  
Indeed, [PERSON] et al. used post mortem computed tomography to integrate the anatomy teaching style in a nursing school, with good results in terms of students' self-perception of learning, understanding and confidence [14].  
Another tool provided by the new technology is represented by the virtual dissection table (DT), which allows students to manipulate and to observe over and over again, and in all of the spatial directions, the organs within the human body.  
Based on the experiences reported in previous literature [12; 13; 14], the aim of our study is to evaluate the perception and the outcome of examination of the nursing students to the diversification of teaching methods, introducing, during the lectures, the use of a virtual dissection table (DT, Anatomage(r)).