Cadavers

1. after reading some of ya'lls remarks about your a&p class i was wondering. who had human cadavers in a&p? if you do, what type/size school are you attending?
   
   i attend a small community college, less than 1,000 students, but had a great a&p instructor. over 15 years ago, he insisted on having cadavers, he told the school they would not have a computer class without computers, so he needed human cadavers.we have 5, it is so great doing lab practicals on real bodies, i just can not imagine trying to learn muscles & arteries etc on cats or whatever is used by some schools.
   
   he gets a new one every 2-3 years and has a dissection class. it is not required but i think it will be a great class to have. i have to brag on myself here for a minute. i was one of twenty-four accepted into the class. over 75 applied. i am so jazzed.
2. 

   About StudentSandra

   Joined: Nov '01; Posts: 394; Likes: 89
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3. 
   Dec 18, '01

   congratulations on your acceptance into the class!
   
   no cadavers here. i wish we could have had them. it would have been a great learning experience. you are definitely lucky!
4. 
   Dec 18, '01

   We had cadavers for A&P. We are lucky, in that we had A&P lab with med students from the Osteopathic Medical College here. We also did cats, and pigs, then moved on to bodies. It was a wonderful experience.
   
   BrandyBSN
5. 
   Dec 18, '01

   Congrats! I absolutely loved my A&P1 and 2 classes. We used cadavers in our classes. Our cadavers are 10 YEARS OLD!! They didn't even look human, they looked more like beef jerky. I personally think I learned more from the cats
6. 
   Dec 18, '01

   I went to a community college, I wish we would have had cadavers. The pigs were just confusing to me the class couldn't tell what was being stuck, maybe thats just poor labeling, but I did learn a lot from a cat in high school.
7. 
   Dec 18, '01

   I also went to a community college and we used cats from the local animal shelter. I think it would have been great to have had real bodies instead!
8. 
   Dec 19, '01

   Boy are you cadaver folks lucky. Cats just aren't quite the same, are they.
9. 
   Dec 20, '01

   10 year old cadavers???? EWWWWWW!!! I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder there!! LOL! We didn't have cadavers, just cats. It was still fascinating though!!
10. 
    Dec 20, '01

    as i said, we had 5 cadavers, the "oldest" 15 years. the instructor is very fastidious about them. we not in use they are kept "moist" and covered. a few of them have seen their better days, but still are very useful.
    
    with everything in college, the instructor makes or breaks the experience. i feel extremly lucky, i don't think i could have had a better a&p instuctor even if i was at harvard. :d
    
    can you tell, i just love my instructor!!!
11. 
    Dec 21, '01

    Hi there,
    
    We did not use cadavers at all, human or otherwise. Our a&p lab was completely computerized. We dissected via computer animation using the A.D.A.M. computer program. It was definitely interesting, to say the least, but I feel like I was missing out on something....
    
    Christine
12. 
    Dec 21, '01

    We used ADAM before we moved on to cadavers. I wasn't all that impressed with ADAM. It is not very realistic, however i did use it extensively when studying to remember all of the bones, muscles, and nerves. It made a good study guide, but its not the same as actually "getting your hands in it".
    
    BrandyBSN
13. 
    Dec 24, '01

    we used cats. We did get to watch an autopsy in clinical that helped. We used the ADAM also. Not bad. One gross thing was we used the same cat for two semesters! Pretty rank smelling by the end of the second semester!
    
    We also dissected a sheep brain and a cow eyeball.
    
    I go to a small state school.
14. 
    Dec 26, '01

    After reading some of the posts, I guess we were really lucky in our Anatomy class. I took the class at a junior college before transfering to a university, where each semester we had two new cadavers - one female and one male.
    
    My instructor used to teach third year med students, so I guess he really understood the need to see "the real thing". When we read about the different anatomical structures in our books, they all looked so neat and orderly. Not so in the body! I'm very fortunate to have had the experience!
    

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