Cadaver lab

Nursing Students Post Graduate

Published

Specializes in ER, HH, CTICU, corrections, cardiology, hospice.

Did anybody's BSN / MSN involve A&P with a cadaver lab? I think I'm going to try to beg my advisor to let me take or audit such a course. I'm a visual and tactile learner. What kind of input do you have?

Anatomy without dissecting and handling the human body doesn't count in my opinion. There is NO substitute for the real thing.

And believe me, it's easier to remember the cranial nerves when you've had to find and name them on an actual brain. Things make sense more.

It should be required, but I don't think there are enough people donating thier bodies thses days.

Specializes in ER, HH, CTICU, corrections, cardiology, hospice.

So I take it that's a yes from you;) . But how prevalent is it?

Specializes in med surg, SICU.

I graduated from a 4 year generic BSN program and our anatomy was a 4 cr. hr. course with cadaver lab. It was the coolest class I have ever taken. Getting to be hands on was so beneficial. Our students had the option to take either the PE dept. A&P or the biomedical science A&P, so of course I chose the one with the cadaver lab. It was awesome and I would reccommend it to anyone!

Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.
Anatomy without dissecting and handling the human body doesn't count in my opinion. There is NO substitute for the real thing.

And believe me, it's easier to remember the cranial nerves when you've had to find and name them on an actual brain. Things make sense more.

It should be required, but I don't think there are enough people donating thier bodies thses days.

I vote they take everyone that dies in prison and use those bodies, after all, they are already wards of the state.

Prisoners are considered a "vulnerable population" in research ethics and law.

Automatically donating the bodies of prisoners would be a huge ethical problem.

Voluntary donation is the only thing that works ethically.

Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.

You will find that very few BSN programs around the country use cadavers. Unfortunately schools don't have the facilities or bodies to do this. Another problem comes about when you have a school that has up to 400 - 500 students in their A&P classes. It is hard to provide enough cadavers to accomodate all of the students. The BSN program I am at currently doesn't use cadavers either. I think the schools that are able to use cadavers usually have a medical school associated with their institution.

There are a few schools around the country that offer "summer programs" to students interested in disecting a cadaver. I think that would be an amazing experience. Hopefully someday I will be able to take one of those courses.

I did take a cadever lab. I loved it. Being able to touch and see the real thing is much better learning tool than the cats or things made out of plastic. It really helps you to remember.

I'm in an A&P class with a cadaver lab right now.

It isn't a good fit for me (which I already knew because I tried to take a course like a few years ago) so I no longer go the labs. I made it through 4 labs, which was when they started pulling out the hearts and lungs!

I use the school provided software called "The Divisble Human" and it works great. (Which BTW is a program made possible by a man who decided that he wanted to donate his body once killed by lethal injection after years on death row)

I think, if you can take it, it would be a great experience. But after trying twice, I just couldn't get over it!

LP

(double post)

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