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Discussion

Dissection Lab Reaction?

Alright so I recently went through the beautiful task of rat dissection. I do not normally get grossed out by things, but I had no experience previous to the lab. I had to excuse myself for a minute because I felt a little bit nauseous, and on my way to the bathroom I got slightly dizzy.

This reaction really upsets me because I know there are more of these, and though i did not feel personally disturbed, I had a bit of a reaction to it (where no other students did). I was also the only one standing, so that could be factor. Is this normal on a general scale? Do people often have to excuse themselves from this type of thing? Were there maybe students that were hiding it?

I'm not letting this stop me from moving on, mainly because it is a different experience than working with live humans. Mainly, we aren't pulling out their guts for "education." I feel that it will be be very different dealing with real people. There is just a part of me that wonders if that reaction will reflect poorly on me as a nurse, or if it is common to feel that way during a dissection?

I did happen to eat a bunch of jelly candies that day, not knowing we had a dissection, but that's beside my point.

Thank you for your experiences/responses.

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    • Featured Replies

    Eat well prior to your anatomy lab and feel free to excuse yourself when you do not feel well. You don't have to play hero. Talk to your instructor and see if there are any other options for the anatomy lab in relation to dissections.

    In in our course we had a student that passed out and could not do the dissections. Our instructor was able to improvise with pictures, the computer, and the Human anatomy models. I am sure you are not the first or last to feel ill during dissections and I am hoping there are other options for such students at your school. Talk to your instructor and hopefully they can work with you.

    Youre re right working with patients is different than cutting open rats, cats, and etc in lab.

    Best wishes.

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    Are you sure that it wasn't the formaldehyde? That always used to make me pukey.

    Most nursing students experience various types of 'swoon' when they're exposed to new (kinda gross) clinical things. But, you'll become less sensitive to it as time goes on. Just remember not to pass out over a sterile field or upchuck into an open wound - ;)

    You're going to be fine.

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    The smell of the preservatives used in the specimens always made me kinda nauseous. My teacher told me to take Vicks vapor rub and put in on the outside of my nose as well as in the nostril. Once I wasn't dealing with the unpleasant odor, I could focus on dissection. It also comes in handy when you're a nurse doing wound care, c-diff clean up, ext. I carry a small jar of it in my scrub pocket.

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    another thing that works is hall's mentho-lyptus coughdrops. I always have them in my pocket and pop one in prn.

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    The smell of the preservatives definitely does not help!

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    Wow thank you for the positive responses. I guess there were a lot of variables to it too, but I am relieved to hear I'm not the only one. thanks for the helpful tips :laugh: Hopefully I will make it through the cadaver when that comes up...

    We didn't use formaldehyde, it was something else that wasn't suppose to be as bad, but it was still pretty bad. lol

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