Associate Professor Sanders’ role combines teaching with a redesign of the Anatomy and Histology major in the Faculty of Medicine and Health. They are also working on the University’s body donation program, focusing on further nurturing respect for body donors and support for students who may encounter death for the first time in an anatomy lab.

"Many of our students are undergraduates and there’s a good chance they have never seen someone who has died before," Associate Professor Sanders said. "In anatomy, one element of the hidden curriculum is that, in the course of their learning, students come to terms with death and dying. They'll have thoughts about mortality, what it is to be human."

Associate Professor Sanders’ aim is to make these aspects of the curriculum more explicit, giving students the opportunity to discuss their feelings about early encounters with body donors and how this links with their professional development.

"These conversations could help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. What’s more, such opportunities could provide students with tools that might improve their wellbeing as health professionals, who of course experience death in all sorts of ways," they said.

Associate Professor Sanders said their approach to anatomy teaching reflected a broader cultural shift in the health sector.

"Historically, in medical professions especially, I think there has been this idea that vulnerability is weakness. But that’s changing. We want our future health professionals to be able to look after themselves while managing challenging situations – and we want to start teaching them how to do that while they’re still in the classroom. To look after a patient, you must be able to look after yourself."

Hero image credit: Stefanie Zingsheim/The University of Sydney