Anatomy lab tips

[krasnayana]

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I know there are bunch of posts on this topic, too lazy to search. I know some MS1 are almost through with the anatomy dissections.

I am to begin in two weeks.

Please post your tips / suggestions that you've discovered in lab to make lab for those about to begin easier.

 

[Law2Doc]

I know there are bunch of posts on this topic, too lazy to search. I know some MS1 are almost through with the anatomy dissections.

I am to begin in two weeks.

Please post your tips / suggestions that you've discovered in lab to make lab for those about to begin easier.

Always keep your mouth closed when dissecting the juicier parts.
And don't bring any souveniers home to give to strippers like that dude in NJ apparently did.

 

[krasnayana]

And don't bring any souveniers home to give to strippers like that dude in NJ apparently did.

what souveniers did he give?

One tip I came across is to tape gloves to the sleeves of your shirt. Is that helpful?

Will I have a new aroma in my hair and if so, tips to get it out? Lemon?

 

[Law2Doc]

what souveniers did he give?

One tip I came across is to tape gloves to the sleeves of your shirt. Is that helpful?

Will I have a new aroma in my hair and if so, tips to get it out? Lemon?

A hand. See http://chronicle.com/news/article/1...t-accused-of-giving-cadavers-hand-to-stripper
I don't know how the taping gloves would work -- usually you would be wearing scrubs, which are short sleeved. Also how would you get the tape off once your gloves are used.
You will have aroma in your hair, clothes, and even skin. Time will get rid of the smell.

 

[beefballs]

Read the dissector beforehand-just skim it for a rough Idea, and look at the same thing on a few other bodies as well. The body has a definite logic to it (except for palmaris longus what dumb thing that is) and seeing how it goes together and what lies where will really help you to make sense of things
ps you still have to memorize a ton it just was easier this way imho

 

[lyn2006]

double glove with nitrile gloves, and put a layer of soap between them if you're in there for awhile. it worked really well for me.

if you're a girl it helps to wear your hair up in a tight bun. the more it's exposed to the air, the worse it smells when you leave.

as for the info you have to learn, it's just a lot of memorization and learning relationships so you ID things on the practicals.

 

[krasnayana]

if you're a girl it helps to wear your hair up in a tight bun. the more it's exposed to the air, the worse it smells when you leave.

Super tight chignon it is.

Would you recommend safety glasses for juicy projectiles?

Also, how often did you wash your scrubs?

Would you recommend going to the lectures, or were you able to learn better on your own?

 

[psipsina]

I go to anatomy lecture

Use nitrile gloves and change them a few times thruought.

I have a dedicated pair of sneakers and sweatshirt (our lab is really chilly) that I keep in my locker, I wear diff scrub bottoms and a tank/tee underneath everyday that I wash everyday. I take the sweatshirt home to wash on its own in very very hot water about every two weeks.

Make sure your dissector kit has angled forceps, or buy some separately, we call them " the persuaders" and they rock

We have four people/tank, and you all can't cut at once. We usually have two cutting (sometimes the others have to help retracting but not usually) and the other two are responsible for identifying structures, reading the dissector, and quizing/pimping the rest of us while we work so we are studying while we cut.

Know insertions/origins/relative locations for everything so you can make intelligent guesses on the practical . .. most importantly know layers so if X number of layers are reflected away you know what layer you're looking at, don't just depend on one landmark that you know to identify a structure, because it might not be in the picture on the practical

Come in on your free time, schedule labs will not be enuf

At home, study usuing your dissector and rohens

Know your bones!!!! Tons of easy points here.

Nothing you will do will stop you from smelling. You'll get used to it.

 

[SelflessAct]

I'd add just a couple more things...

DON'T go into lab completely unprepared. You will not only get nothing out of it, but you will also annoy your other tankmates if you incessantly ask inane questions that you should know the answer to had you prepared even marginally. And, try to stay on topic...don't go asking questions about the branches of CN V when you're dissecting the pelvis, it throws people off.

DON'T hog the dissecting. Let others have a chance to cut stuff too, it really helps them learn. If you want to be a surgeon someday, then I can understand your passion for wanting to get your hands dirty, but don't overdo it - don't be that guy/girl.

If you can't stand the smell (you never really learn to overcome the initial shock of the the first blast of smell when you step into lab, imho) then chew some strong gum. It works...just remember to keep your mouth closed at certain times, as Law2Doc said.

Lastly, have a bit of fun. Make friends with your tankmates, joke around and don't take everything sooooo seriously. Stay sane. It's a very strange situation to be hacking away at a cadaver until it is completely unrecognizable as even a human at the end of the semester... you become really desensitized to it. But, it really is amazing when you see the things you see, and you're lucky because not everyone in the world will ever have an experience like that. /end academic plug. 😀 You might find that you'll even miss lab (just a little) when it's over.

 

[ShyRem]

If there are review sessions put on my MSIIs, TAs, whatever - GO TO THEM. No matter WHAT it takes. Get your work done. Quiz each other often -- pick up a muscle/nerve/artery and say "what's this? where does it go? where does it come from? what does it do/innervate/supply?" Very helpful.

Do WELL in upper limb and lower limb (if your school has them broken out). Believe me, TAPP and Head are MUCH MUCH worse than the limbs.

 

[samenewme]

Go out of your way to establish a friendly helpful, team relationship with your lab group from the get-go. People will cut things by mistake. Bad things will happen. People will be tense because of exams. It's important to be nice to each other, laugh off mistakes, and work together.

Before lecture, look at the structures on your list in your atlas. It's helpful to bring a list to lab and check off the things you can possibly see before you leave. Sometimes dissection wont' go well and you won't get to everything or it won't be there. But at least you'll have an idea how much you have yet to accomplish.

Wash your scrubs regularly, shower promptly, and pull your hair back and you'll be okay on smells. Or you'll get used to it. I have several sets of anatomy clothes. Since I'm on a budget I just bought a lot of junk for 50 cents to 1.00 each at rummage sales. Some are scrubs but some are just clothes.

My hands have really be fine with one pair of nitrile gloves, at least as far as I can tell.

I did, in fact, get hit in the face with a flying bit of cadaver, and it happened to be the only time the whole lab I actually had my big mouth closed. I was very happy about it.

 

[Law2Doc]

I did, in fact, get hit in the face with a flying bit of cadaver, and it happened to be the only time the whole lab I actually had my big mouth closed. I was very happy about it.

Someone in every anatomy class inevitably gets a mouthful. I've never heard of it not happening to at least one person. Time your yawns accordingly.

 

[pmpkn219]

My group certainly had a few of those moments. Usually the flinger turned bright red and started apologizing, the flingee grimaced and removed the offending piece, and we carried on.

Having a good relationship with your group is key, we didn't pick ours but I got lucky. Hard workers but not psychotic either, we were a good fit. And definitely look at all the different cadavers, because yours won't be the only one tagged on the practical!

Our academic council set up "practice practicals" that I found helpful, usually showed me jsut how much I Didn't know (hated anatomy). See if your class is doing those. Also, a bunch of girls in my class wore bandanas on their heads, said it made their hair less smelly.

I wore mine in a ponytail, and wore scrubs with a thin long sleeve tee underneath (so cold in lab!). I had 2 sets of scrubs and one undershirt. I washed in hot water (and with no other clothes) about every 2 weeks. It was smelly but I didn't feel like putting in the effort to do mroe. Also I designated a pair of sneakers and a bra to lab duty, and threw all these items away at the end (yes some days I felt my bra smelled faintly of cadaver, I decided to cut my losses there).

 

[ShyRem]

One more thing - if you normally wear contacts, consider NOT until gross is over. I know some folks wore their contacts anyway, but mine got dry, itchy, and just nasty feeling. Could never get them clean after a few days in gross lab. And as a bonus, when you're chipping away at those bones (which you will), you'll want some eye protection.

As for your skin, get some lavender lotion. Many folks in gross lab find their skin gets downright nasty while lab is on-going. The lavender will feel good, smell good, and for those of you interested in herbal stuff, it's supposed to help pull the formaldehyde out of your skin (I personally dunno about that, but it does smell nice and helps keep my skin from drying out horribly from the chemicals).

 

[krasnayana]

Thank you for all the suggestions guys 😀

 

[Church]

"Double gloving"? lol Doubled, with soap between? wow. obsessive?

One pair of gloves, a set of tools, and NOT open-toed shoes.


Don't be the chick from my class that took a face-full of brain-juice open mouthed 🙂 Icky.


Oh, and don't make the inevitable Temple of Doom one-liners when doing the thorax/heart...


<"Cover your heart, Indeeee!">

 

[45408]

oh, if you have the cadaver humidors that raise up when you push the lever down (and it lifts out of the preserving fluids), MAKE SURE YOU DON'T EVER LET IT CRASH DOWN! It'll spray you with preserving fluids, cadaver fluids, and cadaver chunks. It only happened once, and it was the professor's fault some girl just got sprayed.

 

[MarzMD]

If you are trying to push the arm out of the way to get to the thorax or anything in that region, be aware that it has a tendency to swing back......and it will smack you in the face if you are too slow.

Oh, and if you try to sit in a lab stool while dissecting make sure you are not leaning too much on the stool. Seems like every week I hear a loud crash because someone fell over on a stool.

 

[johnnyb255]

Don't know if this has been mentioned but with dead guy juice on the floors it can get pretty slippery, just be careful.

We had long-sleeved white lab coats for dissection, I rolled my sleeve up one turn each week till i reached the elbow and then washed it with a couple of mate's lab coats. Share the load.

Double gloving may or may not do anything, but it makes you feel better.

If you get something in your mouth then yes, eeeww, but it isn't the end of the world. I think I swallowed something (unintentionally) and I'm still alive.

Similarly you may find certain meats a little distressing at first, I had problems with my college's steak dinners for a while. It passes, though those steaks were dodgey to begin with.

Have fun was mentioned, and I'd definitely second that. At first we thought jokes were out because we had to respect the body and all, but seriously you're hacking the crap out of a dead person- respect is a questionable goal here. You'll only get a limited opportunity to do this stuff and time really flies so make the most of it and enjoy it.

 

[45408]

Have fun was mentioned, and I'd definitely second that. At first we thought jokes were out because we had to respect the body and all, but seriously you're hacking the crap out of a dead person- respect is a questionable goal here. You'll only get a limited opportunity to do this stuff and time really flies so make the most of it and enjoy it.

I don't think being respectful precludes having fun. It's a very new situation for almost everyone in the lab, and humor is a mature defense mechanism against a stressful situation. You shouldn't mock the dead, but you shouldn't let the room get depressing and boring.

 

[sphincter tone]

Make sure you pay attentions to where the scalpels are (this isn't like the ones we used in middle school to dissect frogs, these are VERY sharp) and above all, don't be that kid that screams and starts flailing her arms around WHILE HOLDING THE SCALPEL when fluid oozes out of the cadaver

 

[johnnyb255]

I don't think being respectful precludes having fun. It's a very new situation for almost everyone in the lab, and humor is a mature defense mechanism against a stressful situation. You shouldn't mock the dead, but you shouldn't let the room get depressing and boring.

Yeah I agree. Don't know about you guys but we had a brief prep lecture beforehand which was pretty much focused on us being 'respectful' and the priviledge of having cadavers. What being respectful in an anatomy lab meant wasn't really explored.

 

[cwb]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but...

The thing I found most helpful was to look at different bodies. It becomes far to easy to just memorize exactly where everything is on your body and then just point to it without actually understanding what is going on. The key to doing well on practicals is understanding everything in relation to each other and the only way you're going to be able to do that is by being able to recognize something on a body you've never seen before simply by recognizing things around it (our practicals sometimes literally had like a 1" by 2" square that you could see and you had to know the structure).

Also, I hardly ever had time but reading through notes and stuff can be helpful as well - but I wouldn't spend hours upon hours studying for practical - I pretty much treat lab and the class as separate entities and am doing pretty well...

As far as joking around - that is the only thing that made lab bearable for me and I don't care what precautionary methods you take you are going to smell like ass so I say you just roll with it 🙂 .

 

[penguinophile]

Something I got to about 1/2 way through. Use a #12 blade! It rocks so much, especially when you have a fat body because you can cut and then clear fat away with the blunt end. Best technique I've found for efficient cutting/clearing of fat. Also, don't be afraid to dig around with your hands. My personal motto when it comes to skinning a cadaver: "Grip and rip. Whatever stays is important"

 

[Instatewaiter]

There is a special swimmer's shampoo for getting cholorine out. It also works really well for getting formalin/cadaver juice out. Use it as a body wash and shampoo and you won't smell.

 

[45408]

Yeah I agree. Don't know about you guys but we had a brief prep lecture beforehand which was pretty much focused on us being 'respectful' and the priviledge of having cadavers. What being respectful in an anatomy lab meant wasn't really explored.

I think you should keep it in mind, but if you make a comment about how disgusting fat is, that's just stating the obvious 😛

 

[shamrockgirl]

be tall so u can actually see the prosection b/c its so freaking crowded 🙁

 

[BoredRlyin]

Oh, and don't make the inevitable Temple of Doom one-liners when doing the thorax/heart...


<"Cover your heart, Indeeee!">

Personally, I was quite fond of the Braveheart one-liners when doing the lower abdomen...

"Just say the words...say the words and it can all end.....FREEEEEEDOM!!!!" I'm sick, I know.

 

[deleted77919]

(except for palmaris longus what dumb thing that is)

Of course it has a purpose. It provides the surgeons something to scavenge when they need an extra tendon or two.

 

[paco4488]

When you are working on the chest, abdomen, and head, don't forget to take care of the back side of the body. Keep it moist and mold free. If you don't, you may end up with a gluteus maximus covered in mold on all sides. The mold will procede to spread to the unmentionables....ENJOY!

It really isn't bad. You get used to pretty much everything. I actually miss it. It was a great experience and was much more fun than sitting in lecture for four hours a day. I even miss the smell that was left on my hands during lunch every day.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Bone smells like fritos when you take the bone saw to it. Resist the urge to drool!