Do we still dissect things in a&p?

AmberHopefulRN · Mar 23, 2013

I took A&P in 2010, and we dissected cats. The next semester the school changed over to dissecting pigs.

x_factor · Mar 23, 2013

We're doing cats this semester for A&P 1. We're continuing with cats and also doing sheep organs and cow organs next semester for A&P 2.

lauraline · Mar 23, 2013

My school uses human cadavers. We used them the entire time. And didn't have any animals. Why does everyone's school seem to have animals? :/

Just wondering...Are animals better? Were they freshly dissected? Maybe that is more beneficial than a human specimen that has been preserved since the chemicals change the tissues?

zoe92 · Mar 23, 2013

My school (community college, but a pretty big one in the capital city of my state) does not dissect anything at all in A & P 1 or 2.

Best_Name_Ever · Mar 23, 2013

I took A&P in 2009 at a university, and we used cats that were already dissected.

When I was in high school the year before that, we dissected our own frogs and fetal pigs in A&P.

i♥words · Mar 23, 2013

My A&P class dissected a sheep's brain, a cow's eye, and a cow's heart. They were not fresh but preserved, and the lack of detail made the whole thing seem like a waste of time. The lab book had better pictures.

Mandy0728 · Mar 23, 2013

Depends on the school, because our community college uses cats but our university uses cadavers, which help more when learning about muscles.

vettechtoRN · Mar 23, 2013

I will be going to gloucester county in nj. If we have cats I should be a pro! LOL!! Deceased subjects defiantly look much different then the real thing. I really enjoyed the dissection but not the smell!! Stays on your stuff for days!!! That just reminded me I think I threw out my dissection tools:(

Okie36 · Mar 23, 2013

We did sheep brain, heart, cow eye, and the cat

meeep, BSN, RN · Mar 23, 2013

My school uses human cadavers. We used them the entire time. And didn't have any animals. Why does everyone's school seem to have animals? :/
Just wondering...Are animals better? Were they freshly dissected? Maybe that is more beneficial than a human specimen that has been preserved since the chemicals change the tissues?

Animals are much cheaper, is the most likely reason.

We use a cat, sheep's brain, and cow eyeball at my school.

ShaeMarie · Mar 23, 2013

We've used sheep brains and eyes, cow hearts, fetal pigs, and small pigs. The cow hearts were cool because they were so big and we could see most parts well. The sheep parts and fetal pigs were nice to only use once. But we kept the small pigs all semester and did each system separately, I was tired of that thing!

It would've been nice to use cadavers, but as someone previously mentioned, there's no way the school would have paid for that.