Question about nursing school

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I'm working towards an associate degree in nursing starting this fall and I was wondering if nursing students have to do anything with cadavers?? I was reading an article the other day about a medical student talking about his cadaver and it just got me wondering if nursing students had to go that in depth with A&P too??

Thanks!!

We didn't have cadavers or sheep or pigs. All we had were some crummy plastic models that were falling apart! I haven't felt like I was at a disadvantage so far, though.

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Our community college used plastic models, videos and cadavers. The cadavers were brought in and had previously been dissected...it was just the instructor pointing out various body parts that we had already learned on the models. I agree it helped to better visualize seeing it on an actual body (vs.) a plastic model or a video of said plastic model!

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I go to a 2 year technical college and I just finished my a&p courses. We didn't use cadavers, but we did use fetal pigs and sheep organs for dissections. It is not bad other than the stench of formaldehyde. One of the larger universities in the state does use cadavers.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
I'm working towards an associate degree in nursing starting this fall and I was wondering if nursing students have to do anything with cadavers??

Depends on your school and what they can afford. My school could only afford cat cadavers.

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Specializes in General adult inpatient psychiatry.

Yeah, I'll second everyone else. I only ever dissected a cat and being a cat person, I would have almost rather worked with a human cadaver. There's something really eerie about working with a cat when you can still see the tail and ears and whiskers. *cringes* I think it's really only mostly medical schools that get to play with the human cadavers and that's because they've got the money to do it.

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Our school uses cadavers. We had two quarters of working with them. We did not do any dissecting but we were required to touch/hold/look at a male and female cadaver. When I started I wasn't sure I could handle it but I did very well.

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Specializes in Psych..

My community college uses cadavers for A&P I and II. Like the other posters, the cadavers are already dissected before they get to us. We had tests over the various body systems using the cadavers and other things, like sheep and cats.

Everyone in my classes were very respectful of the cadavers. It was an honor and a great experience to be able to learn on someone who donated their body to science.

(I'm a cat lover too, and I had a huge problem getting through that section. I know those cats didn't willingly donate their bodies.)

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Specializes in long-term-care, LTAC, PCU.

We did not work on cadavers in A&P. We used a frog, fetal pin, mink and adult pig heart. I think working with cadavers is more for med students. They are extremely expensive so they're usually just used in med school.

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Actually, there are about 11 to 13 nursing schools in the US which allow their nursing students to disect cadavers... mine being one of them. It is not just limited to premed, and we do not just observe, we thoroughly disect the entire body. if you have a chance, i suggest you find one of these schools, because it is very educational. good luck!

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Specializes in no specialty! (have to graduate first!).
Actually, there are about 11 to 13 nursing schools in the US which allow their nursing students to disect cadavers... mine being one of them. It is not just limited to premed, and we do not just observe, we thoroughly disect the entire body. if you have a chance, i suggest you find one of these schools, because it is very educational. good luck!

If you know there are 11 to 13 schools maybe you can list them so others can look into them easier.

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I don't know all of them... my dean told us that but my school, LSUHSC has the cadavers...i dont know the other one's but i'm sure its not hard to find out.

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I guess I was really lucky to dissect a real cadaver in my Anatomy class. I went to a community college, where a local university give us cadavers. There were 6 cadavers, and we actually have to dissect them with tools. The body wasn't yet dissected, and we were the first students in the lab to dissect the body. The formaldehyde bothered my eyes very much, and I had to wear goggles. The smell was horrifying! I was so nervous at first, but after that experience it wasn't too bad. I looked at it as a learnig experience. The head of the cadaver was covered, so we didn't see the face at all which makes it a lot easier. The dental program in the community college I took the class decapitates the head, and after the cadaver is done, they bring it back to the local university that gave it to us, and have the families of the cadavers come to the cremation event. I'm very thankful to those cadavers that donated their bodies to science.

Our professor also took us the the county coroner's office, and we actually watched a live autopsy really up close in the same room without looking outside a glass window. I guess the dissection up close prepared us to watch a live autopsy.

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