Western Med facilities

[Guest scrub]

i took tours of all the relevant areas while interviewing at u of t and queen's, but i didn't get a chance to catch the tour at western. i guess my question is how do the facilities (such as lecture hall, anatomy lab, student lounges, libraries, or anything else) measure up to these other schools? i know its hard to say whether one or the other is better or worse, and that it could just be a totally biased opinion, but i'm just looking for any kind of feedback from someone in better position to compare them.

[Guest mying]

Okay, here's an attempt to make the comparison between Queen's and Western. Note that I am comparing what I saw of Queen's while doing my tour during interviews there with what I know of Western.

 

Lecture Hall: unless they changed it at Queen's, Western's is more comfy, if only because its brand new and has nice seats.

 

Anatomy Lab: identical, (there's no way to pretty up a cadaver lab) except that at Western the first years do their own dissections, while at Queen's they look at prosections.

 

(addendum to Anatomy Lab): "Plastinated Prosections". Queen's is known for its "library" of plastinated prosections. Western also has a collection of these in the anatomy lab for students to look at (but I still recall Queen's being more handy). I'm pretty sure both schools have a comparable collection of plastic and wooden models as well.

 

Student Lounges: Western's rocks. Easily the best student lounge in Ontario. Comfy, cosy, leather couches, kitchen sink, fridge, pool table, all the amenities. So I'm told... I don't spend much time there but I know plenty who do. With handydandy adjacent meds-only study room with nice big windows.

 

Libraries: Western's "Learning Resource Centre" for the professional health sciences (meds, dents, nursing) is very nice. Computers, resource books, relevent info to your week's block posted on the board, and clinical skills practice room (however, as I understand it, Queen's has a number of those). Good place for group study.

 

Also, there are a number of "normal" libraries on campus, which are great places to study or pick up a copy of a kids' book when you need a break.

 

Bottom line though, I think they're pretty damn close.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Kudos to the UWO lounge. . . free pool is a great stress relief, particularly at exam time.

 

Haven't really checked out the other schools so can't really compare the facilities. I did see Queen's - they have a better Clinical Exam centre on-campus, but then again we use the Hospitals for the same purpose. . . hard to compare (though it would be nice to have clinical exam rooms if I could ever find the time to practice my exam skills!) Check out the admissions video under a different thread here. . . I'm sure you'll find our "campus" to be quite beautiful.

[Guest TimmyMax]

Hey guys,

 

I think it was mying who mentioned at UWO you get to do your own dissections- how does that work exactly?(ie: what size are dissection groups, etc.) I'm not really into the learning from prosections approach- I like to get in and poke around myself in lab situations- although they do come in handy when I eventually screw up on my own specimen.

I got a tour of the anatomy lab at Queen's and it was pretty top notch (of course, since I didn't get to see the anatomy labs of the other schools I interviewed at, I really have no basis for comparison, but that's beside the point) and the museum of plasticized prosections was pretty cool. I'm assuming that UWO is very comparable (and has the grooviest lounge this side of Woodstock), but I was just wondering how the anatomy labs worked there, since I neglected to ask anyone while I was there. Stupid me. Can anyone elaborate?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Timmy

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hey Tim,

 

There's enough cadavers to pair you in groups of eight dissectors. Dissections occur 1-3/4 times per week (depending on the block. . . there's more anatomy in the muscuoskeletal block than immunology block) and a pair of students from that group of eight dissectors is appointed to do the week's dissections - but you're free to go in and help dissect any time you want. . . most people don't take that opportunity, so most days you can pariticipate as one of 2-3 dissectors, depending on your groups. Or you can take that hour off to hit the gym (unless it's your assigned turn to dissect!)

 

On top of that, your free to access the anatomy lab 24 hrs a day, but you need to find a partner who'll go into the lab with you.

 

Hope this helps & that stuff about groups was clear. . . if not, I can try to reword.

[Guest scalpel]

That sounds pretty good. I've heard from a few people that U of T cadaver-slicing sections are pretty stressful, with 8 people per cadaver and people fighting over the "good" ones.. any truth to this? Also from what I saw, U of T's student lounge is just a big empty room with a foozeball table in the corner, and the lecture halls look pretty bleak. But maybe things are different at times other than 8:00am on sunday morning. Anyone else care to comment on U of T vs. Western?

[Guest TimmyMax]

Hey UWOMED2005,

 

Thanks for the great response- and great picture archive on the Meds2005 site!

I have another question, though- I remember on my tour hearing something about dissection videotapes you can sign out and watch- what a great idea! Can you tell me a little about those?

 

Thanks!

 

Tim

 

P.S.: Cheers go out to the Sens for putting the Flyers out of our (playoff hockey viewing public's) misery!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

There are numeours dissection videos. . . with collections both in the LRC (Learning Resource Center) and in the Med/Bio Science library (Taylor libarary.) I find the best quality to be the UWO-made (seriously,) as long as you don't let a certain prof's monotone put you to sleep. Some are better than others, but I've often found watching the videos more useful than staring at an anatomy atlas for an hour.

 

As scalpel's comments about our cadavers vs. those at U of T. . . in reality the situation is not all that different. We too have 8 people per dissection group, and the cadavers do vary in quality. . . they tend to range in age from late 50s to 80s. . . and by that time atrophy has taken place in a number of tissues. But there's never any "competition" for the cadavers - the cadavers are assigned randomly and groups with exceelent specimens (ie some cadavers have excellent gall bladders, others will have better stylopharyngeus muscles) are more than willing to either let you see their cadavers or even demonstrate the specimen to you.

 

And I can't comment on the situation at U of T. . . I'm not a student there.

[Guest mying]

To add to that, some students on finding a "good round ligament" (for example) will clearly invite anyone to come and see. I wouldn't peg anatomy lab dissections as stressful at all. The TAs are all excellent and helpful and the class, as per always, always looks out for others.