Pattern of Recruitment of Technical Staff in Gross Anatomy Laboratories: A Case Study of the South Western Nigerian Universities

Gross anatomy laboratories technologists are directly responsible for the management of laboratory facilities and the human cadavers used during Gross Anatomy instruction classes. It is important to state that this investigation is the first effort to examine this aspect of anatomical education and career in Nigeria. This study considered the recruitment pattern of technical staff in gross anatomy laboratories of universities in South West Nigeria. The technical staff in the gross anatomy laboratories of the twelve (12) universities in Southwestern Nigeria that were accredited for the award of either Bachelor of Science degree in Anatomy or Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery or both at the time of the study completed structured questionnaires. From the results: 86% of the technical staff were males while 14% were females; 59.6% were junior technical staff while others were senior technical staff members. In terms of educational qualifications, 42.1% of total sample had the Senior School Certificate (SSC), 10.5% had Ordinary National Diploma (OND), 7.0% had National Certificate of Education (NCE), 24.6% had Higher National Diploma and 15.8% had Bachelors degree. Observations show that the staffing patterns in the laboratories require attention towards improving on strategies and purposefulness in terms of the qualifications of employees and number of employees per laboratory. It is however important to state that all the studied institutions strongly believed in setting up functional and well equipped Gross Anatomy laboratories and they considered it a fundamental requirement for anatomical and medical education.