EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE ON MEDICAL-STUDENTS ATTITUDES TOWARD ANIMAL LABORATORIES IN PHARMACOLOGY EDUCATION

Background. Medical students' attitudes toward the use of animal labor atories in pharmacology courses may form a useful source of evaluative information about the laboratories' educational effectiveness. Method . In 1992-93, 144 second-year students at the Indiana University Schoo l of Medicine were surveyed-before and after completing four hands-on laboratories using dogs-for their assessments of educational and moral aspects of animal laboratories. Statistical analysis involved chi-squ are and Student's t test. Results. Of the 144 students in the course, 143 responded to the first survey and 86 responded to the second. From before to after the lab experiences, the percentage of students who a greed that the labs would reinforce/had reinforced the lecture materia l increased from 38% to 69%. In both surveys, 10% of the students obje cted to the use of any animals in labs, and 24% (before) and 21% (afte r) objected to the use of dogs. Whereas the percentage agreeing that t he labs involved a morally wrong use of animals rose from 11% to 22%, the percentage disagreeing with that notion rose from 53% to 61%. Betw een 50% and 60% of the students in both surveys opposed doing the labs by computer simulation or videotaped demonstration. Conclusion. Most students indicated that the laboratory experiences enhanced their unde rstanding of the actions of drugs, were preferable to alternatives tha t did not use animals, and did not involve an immoral use of animals. On the other hand, the results suggest that the number of students who have negative feelings about the use of animals in laboratories, thou gh small, tends to be larger than the number who express these feeling s to faculty.