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

Specializes in ICU.

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.

Really? Any more sick than dissecting a person? Don't get me wrong, like I said I didn't realish the experience at first, but there really is no better way to learn the anamoty of the patients you will soon be caring for than the real thing. The sick part of it all it isn't the disection of the animal, it's how the animal came to end up in a shelter and then euthanized so that it could be used for such purposes. At least it's body was put to good use instead of being thrown into an incinerator.

Sorry for the little side, I'll get back on track! :mad:

I guess my point wasn't whether people had the option to pay for human cadavers, but that if it meant an increase in their tuition or lab fees, would they want their schools to implament it? Like others have said, these cadavers are used for a long time so the cost could be spread out over a large number of students. I wonder if availability is the bigger problem though?

Even if I couldn't use a human cadaver (which I'm not sure if my school has them now, I just assumed they did), I would be willing to pay an extra $100 in lab fees for a cat vs. a fetal pig/rat. Rather pay that than the $250+ I will be paying for the brand new anatomy books/study guide/lab manual that is required b/c for some reason the old ones just ain't good enough anymore :rolleyes:

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I think the school has to be granted the "gift" of being part of a cadaver program. In other words, I believe it has less to do with money and more to do with the availability, and donation of cadavers.

And yes, I find it more disgusting to dissect a puppy than a human. Unless you are studying to be a vet, then I can see why you would dissect a domestic animal.

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Specializes in ICU.

Hmmm...interesting. Is it the fact that a puppy would be used (which i have never heard of, the dog I had was probably a little over a year old, not a 3 mo old puppy) or that it is considered a beloved house pet in our society? A pig is considered a domesticated animal. Is the use of fetal pigs sick? I could never disect a human fetus or baby, it would break my heart. But a fetal pig? Wouldn't bother me anymore than any other animal. Different strokes for different folks i guess :wink2:

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I could dissect a human, if need be. A fetal pig, sure. It's just the puppy thing. I am a sucker for puppies. My dog is a maltese and still looks like a puppy even though he just had his 2nd birthday :)

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I may be a little late on this, but last semester I had anatomy and we got cats to dissect. The preservative odor was really strong after a couple weeks so we got masks at the end, but I figured out if I sprayed a little body spray/perfume on my right or left shoulder I could always just lean over and get a wiff of that when the icky dead cat smell was getting to be too much. The smell wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't all leaning close to check out muscles and other structures on the cat, and you can't hold your breath the whole time!

And to add to the discussion, I would have LOVED to have had a cadaver to work on, or even just to view one that was already dissected even if it meant shelling out a lab fee (here is CA CC tuition is only $20/unit for in state and we had no lab fee at my particular school). The human body is amazing and the chance to have an intimate look at our inner works would be worth the extra fees to me, seeing pictures in books or online just doesn't do justice to real life.

I was also really glad we did not have to skin our cats, I thought I would have a hard time since I have a couple at home but I was more enthralled in getting to see everything and appreciative that the animals were getting to serve a greater purpose than just being disposed of.

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Specializes in CTICU/CVICU.
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.

We have to be able to identify a few parts..the trachea..the liver..the heart..the kidneys..large intestine..small intestine..we tried to find the bladder but couldn't (at least on Gus)..I'm sure there are a few more parts. There was actually a model that was numbered so I'm guessing there are quite a few things we have to figure out.

Yup..the professor didn't say anything about us taking pictures..I don't think he even noticed. I would NEVER take pics of a cadaver..just out of respect. But, I took pics and then sent them to my mom and friends. Needless to say, they were grossed out. lol

I live in Jersey and luckily, the snow is melting now. But, it had snowed that day and a lot of people didn't show up for class. I've been taking medicine and going to bed before 10..so I'm finally feeling better. Thanks for asking! :-)

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Am I the only person who only gets models and computer simulations for Anatomy and Physiology? (Anatomy is one semester and Physiology is the next semester at my school, rather than A&P I and A&P II.)

We have some cadaver pictures in our lecture powerpoints or lab books, but mostly it's all illustrations or pictures of models rather than the real thing. And no animals at all.

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You mean they have a real dead person...like just chilling out on a table? With eyeballs and hair and ...stuff?

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
You mean they have a real dead person...like just chilling out on a table? With eyeballs and hair and ...stuff?

If you're lucky enough to go to a school with a cadaver lab, yup. They have intestines, muscles, blood vessels, and spleens too. :D

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You mean they have a real dead person...like just chilling out on a table? With eyeballs and hair and ...stuff?

If you're lucky enough to go to a school with a cadaver lab, yup. They have intestines, muscles, blood vessels, and spleens too. :D

Yep. And I did not know at the time how fortunate my class was to have cadaver lab. I wanted to take the prosection course (where you actually do the cutting and tagging for the A&P class), and had the As in the class to qualify to apply for it, but I got sidetracked somehow. That would have been quite an education.

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