CAUSES OF NON-ATTENDANCE IN ANATOMY CLASSES OF HEALTH SCIENCE STUDENTS.

Objective: Attendance in anatomy class has greater importance for students of health sciences as they hold a vital nature of their professional knowledge and practices and the responsibility for intervening the lives of others. Absenteeism is occasionally raised as an issue by attending students who resent others "getting away" with non-attendance and some formal documents appear to suggest that attendance should be mandated. This article researches to explore non-attendance from the perspective of absent students in anatomy classes of health sciences. Material and Method: The research data was collected from freshman year students of Ataturk Vocational School of Health Science by means of a questionnaire during the anatomy classes of the academic year 2016-2017. Together with the demographic data, the questionnaire includes a Likert-type scale aiming to determine the factors influencing attendance at lectures. Results: 198 students participated in this study on a voluntary basis from different programs such as anesthesia, audiometry, dialysis, first aid and emergency and operating service. Raising attainment levels, being able to take their own lecture notes, learning which aspects of the lecture content were being emphasized and the opportunity to ask questions were amongst the chief reasons for attending anatomical lectures. It appears that the factors preventing students from attending lectures are mainly individual. Amongst the most frequently cited causes of non-attendance, sleeplessness, ill health and the inefficiency of lectures in overcrowded halls were emphasized. Conclusion: The vital nature of professional expertise and its applications, health sciences students' attendance at lectures carried greater importance. It was important to strengthen the mentoring system with regard to individual and external factors, which had been implicated to have a substantial influence on lecture attendance by students. In this article, we also note that enforcing attendance apparently runs counter to import pedagogic principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]