SAANZ Conference 2021

Chair: Jacky Bowring

11:20am - 11:40am
DEATH, EDUCATION, AND RITE OF PASSAGE: THE POWERFUL ROLE OF THE HIDDEN AND INFORMAL CURRICULUM IN TEACHING ANATOMY USING DONATED HUMAN BODIES IN HEALTH PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMMES
Jon Cornwall & Sylvia English

The student experience of learning anatomy in the dissection room during health professional training is the most powerful and transformative education experience of any pre-clinical training, due to its subject nature, rules, boundaries, and expectations. Despite the extant role in anatomy and health professional education that the dissection room occupies, what is less clear is whether this environment and the ‘rite-of-passage’ it signifies could be further utilised to gain benefits for students in their professional development journey.

This work explores a novel perspective on the education of health professional training through their interaction with death in the dissection room, exploring the experience of professional development in this context through pedagogical, sociological, and ethical lenses. It focuses on exploring the role of the hidden and informal curriculum in shaping professional development and identity, highlighting the fact that transformational benefits via rite-of-passage are perhaps not contextualised or maximised for students.

The corollary from this exploration supports the theoretical argument that the boundaries of this liminal phase could be explored pedagogically to further enhance professional development and identity, with this space offering many opportunities to deliver contextual, relevant educational opportunities that capitalise on the transformation that students experience.


11:40am - 12:00pm
DO AOTEAROA NEW ZEALANDERS WANT THEIR HEALTH RECORDS USED AFTER THEY DIE?
Sylvia English & Jon Cornwall  

As people die, posthumous electronic healthcare records and data (PHCD) are increasing in volume. Despite their potential utility, no publicly-generated information exists to guide what uses society may view as acceptable. Using focus groups, we explored the attitudes and perceptions of Aotearoa New Zealanders to PHCD utilisation. This included topics such as family access, consent models, system infrastructure, anonymity, governance, and commercialisation, using general thematic analysis to explore themes.

Sixty-seven people participated (12 focus groups, average 50 minutes), with dominant themes of beneficence, altruism, and usefulness throughout data. Participants indicated conditional support for a centralised, government-managed PHCD repository allowing controlled, no-cost access for healthcare and research purposes. Commercialisation from data-use was viewed as likely and acceptable, with participants prioritising any downstream benefit being preferentially directed to family, then Aoteaoroa New Zealanders, then others. Māori PHCD was considered preferably managed by Māori. Participants struggled around defining appropriate levels of family access, anonymity, and consent models.

This study provides the evidence of social license for PHCD utilisation, providing guidance for establishing trustworthy data governance and highlighting positive traits that exist in Aotearoa New Zealanders. Further exploration of the topic is necessary to guide how PHCD can be utilised in Aotearoa New Zealand.


12:00pm - 12:20pm
SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH ADVERSITY? THE IMPACT OF THE EARTHQUAKE ON THE GREENING OF DEATH
Ruth McManus

My presentation explores ways in which new meanings and practices of sustainability through adversity are considered in and through the on-going shifts in the socio-political positioning of the dead. It charts and interrogate the constitution and emplotment of the dead pre, during and post disaster as a vein through which broader themes of socio-ecological sustainability are getting re-though and re-worked post-disaster. From the pre-disaster offloading of rural church yards to council care to public debates about the ‘white chairs’ memorials and ground-breaking quarry based sustainable disposal projects, a shift to unfamiliar and potentially progressive modes of recuperative community connectivity and engagement becomes imaginable but sadly unactionable due to the hegemonic consequences of centralised efficiencies within a neo-liberal environment.


12:20pm - 12:40pm 
ON THE ERECTION OF STATUES: QUESTIONS ABOUT MEMORIALS AND GENDER
Jacky Bowring

Recent Black Lives Matter protests highlighted the symbolic potency of statues. But as much as statues can be problematic in what they memorialise, the absence of statues also speaks volumes. The gender statue gap is enormous. Discounting statues to royalty or mythical figures, only 13% of statues in the UK and 7% in the USA memorialise women. A quick glance around Christchurch shows the same pattern, with many dead white males on podiums, but only the Kate Sheppard memorial recognises the contributions of women. Groups around the world are seeking to rectify the disparity, including inVISIBLEwomen and the Public Statues and Sculptures Association, who call for nominations of women to be represented in statues.
But is achieving equal representation in statues the answer to inequity? This paper seeks to explore beyond the aspiration for equity, and critiques the very nature of statues as masculinist in their ethos and their form. This critique suggests that rather than seeking equal representation, the challenge is instead to develop forms of expression that more effectively convey women’s achievements. Rather than calls for more women on podiums, a shift towards meaningful design expression could include the creation of inclusive spaces rather than exclusive objects.