cadavars

Liann · Apr 2, 2003

Our college anatomy class had the opportunity to go to the county morgue and watch autopsies one day. What a day! The medical examiners were wonderful and made a big deal about showing us every bit of anatomy that they could. Only one girl left the room feeling faint, but the rest of us were fascinated all morning. If you focus on what you are there to learn, you wont think so much about how this is a person who was alive a short while ago.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2003

Just remember I never met a cadaver I didnt like which is more than I can say for some people in general particularly lawyers and reporters and journalists

doo wah ditty

colleen10 · Apr 2, 2003

Hi Vang,

Consider yourself lucky if your college lets you work with Cadavars. Cadavars are very expensive and many schools just can't afford to have them around or they re-use the same ones for a number of years.

There aren't too many schools around where I live that allow Nursing students to work on them. A couple schools that have Pre-Med and Med programs will have the Med students do the disections and then the nursing students will be allowed to go in and take a look at what the Med students have done if it applies to the Body System that they are studying in A&P. So, even then the nursing students don't really get a crack at dissections.

A couple people that I have talked to said that by the time you get to disecting the cadavar it doesn't look all that life like which in some respects makes it a little easier to handle.

I know that our lab instructor always says that you should be careful if you wear contacts and are doing a disection because the fumes from the preservatives can bother your eyes. I think I have heard that some people are even allergic to the fumes.

nurseBe · Apr 2, 2003

Learning the muscles from a cadaver is so real compared to the books. You will learn a lot. When it got real stinky we would put vicks under our nose to cover up the smell!

vangmice · Apr 2, 2003

if there are more then 4 people working on a cadavar then i think i can handle it, but if it was to be less then that, i think ill freak out... is it okay to leave the room if you feel u cant handle it?what happens if you cant handle it? will u be dropped from that class?

Liann · Apr 2, 2003

I think that dissection is important for students. It seems to me that students in high school should do some kind of dissecting to get a hands on knowledge of science. The costs and the protests from PETA and the like have pretty much eliminated dissection in high school. The result is now you have students in higher education for health careers freaking out over anatomy lab.

Science is messy, sticky, and smelly. So is nursing. Be prepared or find another field. Sorry if thats harsh, but its reality.

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2003

Cadavers???!!!! GGAAAAHHH!!!!! Thank goodness I only worked on a fetal pig! That was bad enough!

vangmice · Apr 2, 2003

would taking an anatomy in the summer be a wrong move.. just the fact that its faster?

MJ-12 · Apr 2, 2003

One suggestion is try not to look into the persons eyes or face, really freaky looking

oh and never remove the skin from his face, let someone else do that, got squirted in the face 3 times before i gave up

Oh and don't be the one to hold the bladder when you cut it open, it squirts out fluid (piss i think )

vangmice · Apr 3, 2003

are you serious?

cokie · Apr 3, 2003

didn't care for the smell, and they kept the face covered up. otherwise it was ok. looks a little like overdone turkey. hated doing the muscles in the arm, too many and they all looked the same to me. i remember one little gal in our class that just loved to climb up on the stool and just start going to town, touching, lifting, identifying. we called her c... the cadaver digger......funny. i can still see her, up there digging away. good luck, study hard. take breaks from the smell, and try to get up front when the teacher is showing things on the cadaver........

vangmice · Apr 3, 2003

thanx for the info everyone... its really helping me ...