EL CONOCIMIENTO DE LA ANATOMíA TOPOGRáFICA DE LOS ESTUDIANTES EN LA PRáCTICA DEL EXAMEN FíSICO: ANáLISIS CUANTITATIVO

the meticulous physical examination is important as complementary to clinical observation and patient's history and needs the adequate knowledge of the human anatomy. therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the nurse students knowledge of topographical anatomy as a basis for the practice of physical examination. a questionnaire was used containing 11 objective questions on anatomy, which are important for the nurse professional practice. for this study, 176 volunteer students enrolled in clinical training were interviewed randomically. the test was applied to students of 6 differents groups (between 4th and 9th period).the data was analysed by contigency analysis (expected data vs obtained data) in the software graphpad instat, being used the exact statistical fisher's test with approach of katz and anova test. p was considered ￡ 0,05 as significant to determine the difference among the groups. the obtained answers compared individually with the expected ones, presented significant variations. a high index of incorrect answers was found in group a (4th period). after comparison among the groups, a decrease was verified in the proportional average of mistakes (37,9%) and of successes (35,7%) among the 4th period (group a) and the group f (9th period). in the individual analysis of the questions, lack of knowledge on some subjects was large, especially among the student's last clinical periods, where the occurrence of wrong answers was even larger. the data reveal that, the more the student advances in clinical training and the distance from anatomy, increases the less familiarity he or she presents with regard to this knowledge. the high index of mistakes and the variance of the data suggest a revision in the hourly load and curriculum of the course, because the students show difficulties in understanding the contents and the anatomical nomenclature.