Dr Georgina Stephens is an education-focused Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Human Anatomy Education (CHAE) within the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology. As a trained medical professional, she is passionate about teaching clinical anatomy in a manner that promotes students’ professional skill development, alongside their anatomical learning. Aligning with this, her research interests explore how anatomy and medical education can foster students’ development of psychosocial skills, alongside effective teaching of core knowledge.

Dr. Stephens has particular research interests in students’ professional skill development within the context of donor dissection. Her recent work in this area has focused on medical students’ perceptions of ethics and experiences of uncertainty. Her research into medical students’ perceptions of ethics in anatomy led to the development of an innovative ethics documentary that focuses on the donor perspective, alongside the experiences of anatomy educators and students. This documentary now forms the basis of the CHAE ethics training required for compliance with the Human Tissues Act, and is the first of its kind. 

Dr Stephens’ recent research into medical students’ experiences of uncertainty include longitudinal, qualitative research across preclinical and clinical medical school stages, and a systematic review and meta-analysis of the psychometric properties of uncertainty tolerance scales implemented among medical student and physician publications. Her work has led to publications in prestigious medical education journals, highlighted the significant limitations of prior UT scale research, and identified multiple avenues for educational intervention designed to improve medical students’ preparedness for the uncertainties of clinical practice.  

Dr Stephens currently teaches into the anatomy component of the medical course. She has particular interests in whole body donor dissection and team based active learning engaging clinical anatomy cases. She also contributes to the professional development of anatomy demonstrator staff, and is responsible for training new staff on evidence-based approaches to medical education and donor dissection.

• Anatomy Education
• Medical Eduation
• Qualitative Data Analysis
• Healthcare Education
• Uncertainty Tolerance
• Reliability and Validity

Undergraduate medical anatomy