Any advice for studying cadavers in anatomy class?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I am having trouble studying the cadavers and the photos of them for my anatomy class. I keep feeling very nauseated :barf02: and imagining the prosection/skinning. It is making it hard for me to study what I need to in the picture. The pictures that look more garbled or that show remnants of the skinning process are the worst (fingertips, reflected skin, etc). I know it's psychological and I need to get past it, but it's easier said than done.

I am not normally a squeamish person - I can handle all kinds of unpleasentries with the human body, but this one seems to get me.

Does anyone have any advice or tips on how they got through it? Do you think I can get by with just studying the models? (Our tests are on cadavers.)

Thanks!

Annie

rats and cats! I'm freaking out. I am TERRIFIED of rats and cats. Obviously they are dead but I don' think I could handle it. I haven't started my class yet, I'm praying for a fetal pig!!!

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Please update us on how it goes!

I have my lab again tomorrow - and a lab practical exam. I will come prepared with vick's and a new appreciation for having cadavers and hopefully a full knowledge of back and lower limb muscles, blood vessels and nerves! ;)

I was watching an NCIS re-run last night and my whole perspective on the morgue scenes has changed. Now, I pay attention to the organs visible from the reflected skin and it is obvious that they are all wrong. The show must have done this on purpose because it is soo way off. I am sure I would have known that before, but I certainly wouldn't have looked. And, the scenes don't even begin to look gross to me now. Maybe I am de-sensitizing after all.

Happy Friday Girls! :yeah:

I LOVE NCIS!!! Good luck on your lab practical

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I LOVE NCIS!!! Good luck on your lab practical

Me too! We had a "snow day" on Weds. I should have spent the day studying, but spent most of it watching NCIS re-runs on my DVR. I love those days when you never change out of your pajamas!

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The rats are in!! The rats are in!!! Can't wait until next Tuesday for lab!!!!!!:yeah:

How did your "rat" class go? Maybe I am not familiar enough with rats, but I would think they would be awfully small to learn from - especially in the hands and feet. That's hard enough on a human. Are you going to name yours? I think I would name it Gus after the little fat one in Cinderella. Bring it a little t-shirt...okay now I am getting ridiculous. :icon_roll

I took my practical but the grades aren't posted yet. I think I did really well on 80% of it. Let's hope some of the chips fell in my favor on the other 20%. Our class is organized by region rather than system. So, we don't study all the bones, then all the muscles, etc. We did the back and lower limb for last practical and the head and upper limbs for the next, etc. We have to know all of the features in that area - bones, muscles, nerves and blood vessels. I think it's easier to see how it all goes together, ie the greater trochanter makes more sense because I learned which muscles come off of it at the same time I learned about the femur. I know why the linea aspera is there, not just because I had to learn it.

After the advice on this thread, I went into my practical with a lot more respect and a bit of a sense of humor. During the test, I was so focused on trying to get a good grade, that I didn't even think about what bothered me so much before.

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Specializes in CTICU/CVICU.
How did your "rat" class go? Maybe I am not familiar enough with rats, but I would think they would be awfully small to learn from - especially in the hands and feet. That's hard enough on a human. Are you going to name yours? I think I would name it Gus after the little fat one in Cinderella. Bring it a little t-shirt...okay now I am getting ridiculous. :icon_rollquote]

LOL!! I take A&P in the evening (I work fulltime during the day) so I'll find out tonight! After all the run-around..I better see some dead rats in there!! I even volunteered to skin them for the professor!:yeah:

I think I shall name my rat Gus!!

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Specializes in (Hopefully one day..) neuro/urology ^.^.

How very awesome though that you get to study with cadavers.

I think in my AP2 class we are just stuck with cats.

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
Our school has the smelly cats, and cow's eye balls..... I dont know how I would react to a 3-4 year old cadaver smell either. I would probably be skipping dinner those days until I got used to it.

Cadavers used for undergraduate education are usually very well preserved. In fact, that's what you smell when the cadavers are that old - the preservative, not the cadaver.

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Exactly, it's the preservative. The visual isn't exactly helpful when trying not to upchuck the bagel you crammed down during your 10 minute break either.

We got a new recruit last week - it's more of a baked chicken appearance as opposed to the others which are more beef jerky-ish. The newer one had a slightly different smell, but mostly it was the same. You're right, the age really doesn't matter on the smell. I do think the older ones have had more of the spray refresher on them over time but it's not necessarily worse, just a bit different.

I am glad and honored that we have the opportunity to work with these, but I started the thread because it does get to you psychologically a bit at first. The sight, the smell, the idea of a pro-sected human - all of it together are quite a bit to handle for the first time. I am still getting there with it, but last week was a lot easier and I feel much better about next week.

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Specializes in ICU.

I'm taking anatomy in the summer, so I haven't been able to experience a cadavar yet, but I did take another anatomy class some years ago and we were able to use dogs. I was really excited about this until I opened up my bag to find a young, chocolate lab inside (I have a choco lab at home) Bit of a downer at first, kept feeling like I was skinning my own pup. Eventually I got over that (and the smell!) and was actually glad I ended up with the dog I did. It was large and had very well defined muscles much easier to learn on, unlike others who had smaller, skinny dogs.

For those who don't get a human cadavier for their anatomy - do you feel like with all the other (seemingly) unecessary expenses tacked onto school, that you would be willing to pay more to cover for the cost of human cadaviers? Or even - at least those who have to work on rats and fetal pigs - an upgrade to a cat or dog?

Unfortuntaley I couldn't transfer the credit I got for my first anatomy class that I took in vet tech school, and I just assumed it was because I learned on a dog and not a human. Now that I know that other nursing students have to learn on animals, I'm really bummed b/c I earned in A in that last class already and don't want to have to take it again, particulary since I just learned today that the books alone will be about $250!

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Specializes in CTICU/CVICU.

I had my night with the rats!!!

I was feeling sick (still am..head cold..body ache..sneezing..coughing..the whole nine) and it was snowing yesterday here..but there was NO WAY I was missing my time with the rats!

And wouldn't ya know..it wasn't too bad! Our lab book has pics of how to skin and dissect a rat..so apparently, there are many more schools that use them. My lab partner and I were delayed in opening Gus (yes..I named him Gus!!) because we were busy taking pics with him! LOL!

It was really interesting to see how some of there parts (like their small intestine) differ wildly from ours..versus some parts (the heart, lungs) were easy to pick out.

There was no smell..except the formeldyhyde (?) and even that wasn't too bad. Some girls left before the class because they were either pregnant..or just couldn't deal with it.

Overall, it wasn't really bad and I think my class had a good time with them. It was definitely an experience..but I would still much more prefer a cadaver..

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I'm taking anatomy in the summer, so I haven't been able to experience a cadavar yet, but I did take another anatomy class some years ago and we were able to use dogs. I was really excited about this until I opened up my bag to find a young, chocolate lab inside (I have a choco lab at home) Bit of a downer at first, kept feeling like I was skinning my own pup. Eventually I got over that (and the smell!) and was actually glad I ended up with the dog I did. It was large and had very well defined muscles much easier to learn on, unlike others who had smaller, skinny dogs.

For those who don't get a human cadavier for their anatomy - do you feel like with all the other (seemingly) unecessary expenses tacked onto school, that you would be willing to pay more to cover for the cost of human cadaviers? Or even - at least those who have to work on rats and fetal pigs - an upgrade to a cat or dog?

I CAN'T believe that you had to skin and dissect a chocolate lab. There is something seriously sick and wrong with doing that to man's best friend. I am no animal rights activist but I just wanted to add that I think it is cruel to expect students to dissect domestic animals. I am not a cat person but I would be devastated to find out that I had to dissect a puppy. You are a brave person for getting past that part alone.

I am pretty sure that people don't have the option to shell out the extra money required to pay for a human cadaver. If you want to study on a human cadaver you would have to research schools based on that criteria. My school is the only school in northern Virginia that has a cadaver lab, which means that George Mason University doesn't...and my school is a community college!

I would like to add this link for anybody that is interested. It is a cadaver dissection video! http://www.lawrencegaltman.com/Naugbio/CADAVER/GALLERY.htm

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I had my night with the rats!!!

I was feeling sick (still am..head cold..body ache..sneezing..coughing..the whole nine) and it was snowing yesterday here..but there was NO WAY I was missing my time with the rats!

And wouldn't ya know..it wasn't too bad! Our lab book has pics of how to skin and dissect a rat..so apparently, there are many more schools that use them. My lab partner and I were delayed in opening Gus (yes..I named him Gus!!) because we were busy taking pics with him! LOL!

It was really interesting to see how some of there parts (like their small intestine) differ wildly from ours..versus some parts (the heart, lungs) were easy to pick out.

There was no smell..except the formeldyhyde (?) and even that wasn't too bad. Some girls left before the class because they were either pregnant..or just couldn't deal with it.

Overall, it wasn't really bad and I think my class had a good time with them. It was definitely an experience..but I would still much more prefer a cadaver..

You bring up a good point - with the cadavers, we don't get to do the dissection. I think there is a real learning opportunity in doing that yourself. We just see the results after someone else has done it. Honestly, I am not sure if I had the scalpel in my hand if I could skin a human though.

What do you have to be able to identify on Gus? The organs? or will they ask for muscles or other parts? We use models for bones and some of the muscles that are really deep.

I have done dissections in other classes and the animals really didn't bother me. The smell is icky, but it doens't gas you out of the room. I always had fun with them. They let you take pictures? (There's your next Christmas card! LOL!) They made us sign a promise that we wouldn't photograph the cadavers - I guess it is pretty different. Can you imagine that getting back to a family member? Traumatizing!! We have power points with pictures of other cadavers (unidentifiable) to study from.

Hope you get over your cold soon! Here in Columbus, we didn't get any snow at all. I think south of us in Cinci, they were on a Level 2 for a while - or so the rumors go. If you are anywhere near that, I think you made a tremendous sacrifice to meet your new little friend.

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