Question about nursing school

[newbie08]

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!!

[sandybrownfour]

At my school during A&P we used cadavers. Each group of 4 students dissected 1 part of the body. I think cadavers are great they look very different from the plastic models and the book.

[Becca_Anne]

In my A&P series we learned on cadavers. No disection, we used cow and sheep parts for that. I was really nervous about how I'd handle it before hand, but when it came down to it I was fine with it.

[RB_RN_MSN]

We just saw a cadaver, but didn't do anything.

[coolpeach]

We de-haired, skinned and dissected about every part of a cat you can think of. We must have went through about 6 cats each. We also did cow eyeballs and pig lungs. We did the heart and brain of some animal, but I don't remember which one.

[momandstudent]

We did use a cadaver at my school which is a private college. We got it our 1st semester of A&P and stayed with us the whole year. I have to admit that at first, I was scared of the idea but after the 1st day, I couldn't get enough. I loved it! We were able to get volunteer hours (mandatory) if we went in and helped disect. When I went to school years ago (at a public univ.), we used plastic models and cats. With the cadaver, it put so much into perspective. The only time it bothered me was when we went in and the instructor had her face uncovered (she was starting to disect the area). I made a comment and the instructor covered the area and back to studying we went. I know some of the classmates had a hard time with it be we did not have to touch it if we didn't want-if it really bothered us that bad, the school said the would accomodate for our feelings and test us out of a book. They never had to do that.

[healthlink]

One question-The school I'm attending also uses cats. Does the cat have fur? Or is it skinned?

Just curious.

[bekindtokittens]

My school's cats had fur. I actually refused to participate in lab after my first day with the cat. I just couldn't do it. Lucky for me, lab attendance was not mandatory, so I just studied cat anatomy using pictures.

[RB_RN_MSN]

The cats have fur and skin--we had to skin them. It isn't nearly as gross as it sounds. Once your there, your curiousity will probably get the better of you.

[newbie08]

The high school I attended used cats in it's A&P class. They still had fur.

[Luptyloo]

My CC has previously used cats as well as cadavers for A&P but has started eliminating cats altogether and only using the cadavers. According to my Proff, it is the trend, as well as what is becoming expected at university programs--- in keeping with the idea that most students taking those classes are going to have humans for patients, not animals.

I thought the cadaver would bother me, but I did alright. I didn't touch him though. I was ok if organs, etc were out of the body but as a whole person it was different. Our Prof used the cadaver in tests for recognition and identification.

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

We had cadavers in Anatomy. We had two fresh cadavers, our class was the first to get them (actually there was four, one was being "prepped" in another non-required class, and the other was going to be dissected in another non-required class which I was thinking about doing but it did not fit with my schedule the following semester) which was an honor because the last ones were literally over 20 years old (no joke). We also had body parts (a head cut in half long ways, a head with part of the spinal nerves handing down, a pelvis cut in half long ways, and many many internal organs) but the only ones we dissected our selves, actually cutting into were non-human: sheep brains, cow eye balls, cow hearts and thats all if I can remember; I took the class about four years ago.

[smellyacres, BSN, RN]

I haven't taken anatomy yet but I know my community college uses cadavers. It all depends on your school. I know people who have tried to take anatomy and couldn't handle the cadavers and had to drop. They recently started doing the cadaver lab in the beginning of the semester so students could get used to the idea. It's good to desensitize yourself early on.

Personally, I'm more worried about the cat dissection because I know that they won't intentionally kill a human for the sole purpose of lab experiements. I like animals....