Anatomy

[Guest baloobizoo]

Does UBC still have mandatory cadaver dissections?

[Guest physiology]

Hey,

 

Yes, there are. They are "mandatory" - although that's debatable. They don't take attendance.

 

If you buy the Rohen Colour Atlas of Anatomy (it's got photographs of cadavers with great shots), you can essentially achieve the same effect as working with a cadaver.

 

I personally don't like the gross anatomy lab - it's normally 6-7 students per cadaver, and it's very difficult to dissect them at times. Groups have been known to fight over who gets to cut what (and those people gunning for surgery don't allow the scalpel to leave their hands... )

 

Just to give you a heads-up, your first anatomy lab is the LAST day of orientation - so you'll have already hit up the lab before everyone else in undergrad has even started school. Orientation week for us started on August 29th last year and I believe it is the same this year, and the school year ends in early June.

[Guest 604EL]

Come on physiology, why you gotta trick those first years into buying textbooks like Rohen that they don't need. hahaha j/j man!

[Guest physiology]

Come on physiology, why you gotta trick those first years into buying textbooks like Rohen that they don't need. hahaha j/j man!

 

Because I'm a shareholder in the publishing company that produces the book. I kid, I kid

[Guest AssDr]

Just curious, why are you asking if the anatomy labs are mandatory baloo?

[Guest baloobizoo]

I found an article in another forum that said some schools were trying to phase out cadaver dissections in favour of new technologies. I have no problems with cadaver dissections but I was just curious if UBC still offered them.

[Guest physiology]

Hey,

 

You're right - some schools don't offer anatomy labs at all. In fact, what they do is give prossections, or already dissected specimens.

 

But anatomy is ESSENTIAL - I mean for clinical skills, for surgery, for radiology - you have to know how to describe what you're looking at and where, so that the your peers and supervising doctors know what the heck you're talking about.

 

However, anatomy is something that you have to learn and unfortunately, it's almost all pure, rote memorization. Even though I dislike the lab - I like seeing the structure that I'm trying to memorize. It's also extremely useful to see how the structure is oriented spatially. I mean yes, the heart has a right atrium, aorta, left ventricle, but to be able to visualize the heart in 3-D and be able to rotate it in your head, that requires careful analysis and dissection.

[Guest Kels2004]

Physio - I have to disagree with you on that one

 

I did a fair bit of anatomy at Queen's in undergrad, and our courses were mainly on prosections in glass or that vulcanized rubber stuff (although we had the chance to grab an arm or a leg the meddies had dissected).

 

I find seeing it is really important, but I don't find the dissecting portion all that stimulating or beneficial. Each to their own!

 

Kels

[Guest not rex morgan]

It's interesting to see what people find useful. I guess we all learn in different ways. I found the dissection and prosections complimented each other. The prosections were alot cleaner, but the dissections gave me an appreciation of orientation and layering. Some of the prosections have already had some layers removed to highlight a structure, but in doing that, the context suffered.

 

I think alot of people get frustrated in the lab b/c there is quite a number of people around the table. Has the gross lab been moved to the new building? It was my understanding that the number of tables available was limited by the room dimentions in the Freedman Building. I thought they might be expanding the number of cadavers and thus decreasing the student to cadaver ratio.

 

I really liked the dissection portion, but I had a surgical streak in me. I also found that I loved watching surgeries in third year, and some students would do whatever they could to avoid the OR.

 

Tips for getting the most out of the gross lab:

1) Anatomy lab time is the major time you are exposed to tutors (some will come in on off hours before the exam)

2) Take advantage of extra teaching sessions offered by the tutors.

3) Go in yourself when the lab isn't on and take a look at the other cadavers. You will get examined on many of the other cadavers and there is anatomical variation.

4) Look at structures from various angles. During your exam, they may flip the cadaver or cover surrounding structures, so you need to test your understanding of orientation BEFORE the exam

5) pneumonics, pneumonics, pneumonics...eg. "A lady sits between two majors." Ie Latissimus dorsi insterts on the humerus between Pec Major and Teres Major...do you think I'd still remember that now without the pneumonic?

6) Rohens is great for actual dissections and exam prep. Netters is great for a diagramatic illustration and gives you a good idea of structure and relationship.

7) If you have greedy lab partners, set ground rules. We had one person who LOVED to dissect, and we ended up staring at this person's back alot. SHARING is key. The person dissecting has to understand that everyone needs to see before anything further is dissected. It also needs to be established that those that want to cut should get equal opportunity.

8) Don't forget that most of the body is bilateral...ie two sides to learn on. This will turn a group of six into two groups of three