Anatomy
Anatomy in this paper is applied: you must use correct positional and directional language when documenting, positioning a patient, choosing an injection site or describing an injury.
Anatomical position and planes
The reference position is standing erect, feet together, eyes forward, arms by the side with palms facing forward and thumbs lateral. Everything is described from the patient's own right and left. Planes: median (midsagittal) divides into equal halves, sagittal parallel to it, coronal (frontal) divides front from back, transverse (horizontal) divides upper from lower.
Directional vocabulary
Superior/inferior (cranial/caudal), anterior/posterior (ventral/dorsal), medial/lateral, proximal/distal, superficial/deep, ipsilateral/contralateral, bilateral, palmar/plantar. Proximal and distal are reserved for limbs and refer to distance from the point of attachment to the trunk.
Skeleton and regions
An adult has 206 bones (about 270 at birth, many of which fuse); the axial skeleton has 80 and the appendicular 126. Bone types are long, short, flat, irregular and sesamoid (patella is the largest sesamoid). The vertebral column has 33 vertebrae - 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 fused sacral and 4 fused coccygeal - giving 26 adult bones. There are 12 pairs of ribs; the first seven pairs are true ribs.
Cavities and systems
Cranial, spinal, thoracic (with the mediastinum) and abdominopelvic cavities, the last divided into four quadrants or nine regions. The body has eleven organ systems.
Worked example
Question: the elbow is ___ to the wrist. Reasoning: both are limb structures, and the elbow lies nearer the trunk attachment, so the answer is proximal; superior would be wrong because superior/inferior describes the trunk and head axis, not limb segments.
Traps that cost marks
Using superior/inferior for limbs; forgetting that in anatomical position the palms face forward; confusing the patient's right with the observer's right; stating 206 bones at birth.