Disrespecting the cadavers

allthingsbright · Mar 11, 2006

Rohan said:
So I know some people will joke about the cadavers because they are nervous, but a student today was way out of line. These people have offered up their bodies for us to learn from, not to be joked about.
One student was asking how old we thought the man was, the offender said "Old enough to have hairy balls!" and started laughing. I was so pissed! These cadavers deserve the utmost respect, not crude jokes. :angryfire She later apologized for being out of line, but I'm still angry. She only apologized when she saw how horrified most of us were.

Some people deal with death in wierd ways, and there is a dark humor that seems to come with nursing in general ("gallows humor" I think is the term). I agree with you, but I just wanted to say you are going to encounter this elsewhere when you are in school (wait til you sit in on surgery-OR peeps are crazy-gross and I have heard lots of disrespectfull stuff from docs and nurses-not that I approve!). Accept the girls apology, stick with what you believe and move on.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Mar 11, 2006

Quote
wait til you sit in on surgery-OR peeps are crazy-gross and I have heard lots of disrespectfull stuff from docs and nurses-not that I approve

Thanks for the support, 'preciate it.

I don't care what dept. it is or who's doing it, it's wrong no matter what.

Rohan · Mar 11, 2006

I currently work with 114ish doctors and their nurses. I hear lots of disrespectful comments about patients and bet they did the same thing in school. If someone had called them on it, perhaps they would be more careful with what the say. And yes, I will call the docs and nurses on it. We had one doctor who would use the bathroom while he was dictating. Who wants to hear that? I told him we could often pick up background noise better than his actual voice and repeated some conversations we could hear for him. I emphasized that ALL background noise was loud. I haven't heard him using the bathroom since.

As for the student, she was only sorry because people were upset with her. I'm over her but will be keeping an ear on her when real patients are around, as will some of my other classmates. I've noticed too often that people are afraid to make waves and people get away with much more than they should.

Have a good weekend all, I'm off to study and play with the kids.

allnurses Guide · Mar 13, 2006

Our professor spent quite a bit of time talking to us before we ever saw the dissection theater about the sacrifice these two people made to donate their bodies and how we were to be respectful. He was also in the room most of the time.

We did enter with a kind of reverence. And everyone was respectful.

By the way, testicles are hairy on young guys too.

steph

stpauligirl · Mar 13, 2006

stevielynn said:
Our professor spent quite a bit of time talking to us before we ever saw the dissection theater about the sacrifice these two people made to donate their bodies and how we were to be respectful. He was also in the room most of the time.
We did enter with a kind of reverence. And everyone was respectful.
By the way, testicles are hairy on young guys too.
steph

Maybe it was the first time for that particular student to see male genitalia in "REAL"

smk1, LPN · Mar 14, 2006

We had some inappropriate comments regarding the "size" difference between two of our male cadavers. No one touched inappropriately or anything, and we certainly were stern with anyone being extra rough pulling excessively on nerves and vessels and such, the last thing you need is a messed up cadaver that you still have to be tested on.

OnTheRoad · Mar 14, 2006

Rohan said:
So I know some people will joke about the cadavers because they are nervous, but a student today was way out of line. These people have offered up their bodies for us to learn from, not to be joked about.
One student was asking how old we thought the man was, the offender said "Old enough to have hairy balls!" and started laughing. I was so pissed! These cadavers deserve the utmost respect, not crude jokes. :angryfire She later apologized for being out of line, but I'm still angry. She only apologized when she saw how horrified most of us were.

That would have pissed me off also. There is humor in our A&P labs, but noone ever jokes about our people ( and dead or not, they are sure as heck people). We get angry when others are too forceful with touching or probing our couple.

I have the utmost respect for these two great souls who gave us their bodies so we would have this unique opportunity to learn from them. I personally have named our cadavers because I want to keep it personal and remember that these people were someones daughter or son, mother or father, sister or brother.

I like to follow a simple rule that I follow with living people also. If there is no way no how that they COULD laugh with me, I don't think it is funny ( IE laugh with me, not at me).

Rohan · Mar 15, 2006

Well, a couple of us got together and talked with the instructor. Apparently there have been a few other incidents during labs, particularly the last session. That was the first one with genitalia exposed. He's going to talk to each lab before they touch the bodies next time. I feel better now but I'm sad that some of these students can't use common sense.

On a happy note, we get to do sheep brains on Thursday and human on Friday!

Katydidit34 · Mar 15, 2006

They have no idea what a privilege it is to get to study on a real human. Where I live, only medical students have access to cadavers for dissection. Aside from what sounds like some coping strategies in play, it sounds like this individual is terribly immature. Good grief. Just slap 'em upside the head and tell them to grow up!! LOL!!!