Gross Anatomy group sizes

[mellotron]

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In weighing an acceptance from Ohio State I keep gravitating to the fact that the groups are 6 as opposed to 4, which seems to be the norm pretty much everywhere.

Just wondering if you have any experiences to offer in a large Gross Anatomy group? Would rather not cause a rift within my group, but I probably have the personality that makes sure I'm getting the experience I need perhaps at the expense of a more timid student. I want to play nice, but I don't want to get shortchanged.

How do 6 student teams work?

 

[Brewster]

My anatomy group had 6 people. It worked out well. There were two of us who wanted to dissect and the other 4 were happy watching. In the end, we all got what we needed/wanted out of the experience.

In the end, I think the difference between 4 and 6 people in your anatomy group will make very little difference in the overall quality of your medical education. You should go to whatever school you liked best.

Good luck.

 

[Wednesday]

Six is better! You don't need to cut to learn and you may be happy to have more people to split the work with. Much cleaning has to be done during a dissection. Plus the less people you have, the more important it is for you to be there every time and a few months in, you may need a break every once in a while.

We had groups of six and they split us up to come to lab every other day in groups of three. Three to dissect was good, because one person to a side and one to read the book. The next day we signed out to the other group, taught them what we had learned (reinforcing it) and then they took over. I loved it because I had some afternoons off to study.

I agree with Brewster, you should definitely not base your med school decisions on it (that goes for if you have to rent a microscope or not either, ridiculous!). Good luck!

 

[imtiaz]

You guys think 6 is a lot? We have groups of 14! That's right, 14! The way dissection works here is a bit weird though. There's 7 areas (lower extremity, upper extremity, abdomen, pelvis, head, neck, thorax) and two people from the group dissect ALL of one region of the body. So if your job is to do abdomen for example, you and your lab partner would dissect ALL of the abdomen, while the other 12 people would just come in once a week and you'd have to show them what structures you found that week. It rotates like that, works pretty well I'd say. Six is nothing! 😛

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

My school is like Wednesday's. You are in lab to dissect every other day and the other days you are free to study what is being dissected. Then the last 30 mins of lab, everyone comes in and the 3 that were dissecting explain to the other 3 what happened. I liked it that way. Sometimes you'll be so happy not to have to stand around in lab all day because you'll be tired or need to study for another class or whatever. And when you are the one explaining what you dissected, it really sticks in your memory better. I really didn't have a problem with the way it was set up.

My group also did "mini" reviews every Friday. After going to lunch, we'd come back in and go over what we had done that week. It helps you stay on top of things and the person who dissected is there to explain anything you may have a prob with. Just a suggestion...a wise 2nd yr told us about it and we thought it worked out great.

 

[DrMom]

At my school we had 8 people/body. We were split so that there were 4 to a side & then we split up the body regions. For example, when we did the back, 2 people dissected the right side and another 2 dissected the left side. When we moved on to the neck, the other 4 split it up the same way. We had weekly review sessions (met with the professors and the other 2 people on your side). It was very nice to have breaks from dissecting. I learned some from the actual dissecting, but not enough to be worth the hours it took to get each dissection done.

 

[IlianaSedai]

We had groups of 4. It was also pointed out to us by instructors that we should make an effort to take turns doing all things-- so that everyone would dissect, instruct, look up atlas diagrams, etc to about the same degree. I'm not sure every group did this, but when I did it we all got to do something.

What happened was that half the group (2 people) were on the cadaver's left side, the other half (2 people) were on the cadaver's right side. Trust me when I say there was plenty of space for everyone to do <I>something</I>! There was plenty for two teams of two to do, but I think there's plenty for two teams of 3 as well.

The key to doing it efficiently was to give everyone a different task. On the single day when we did lower arms and hands, half of our group (2 of us) started working on the left arm, the other half (2 of us) started working on the right hand. Then when we finished, we showed each other the relevant structures (mainly nerves, arteries and muscles) on what we had dissected. Rather than doing the SAME dissection on BOTH sides of the cadaver, splitting it up this way saved us a lot of time.

 

[monster2]

If you're stuck in a large group, the best way to go is to be aggressive in learning. Let all the rest do the job of cleaning fascia and whatnot, while you make sure you see the structures. What counts is learning. Group size doesn't matter, it's how you use your time and effort.

 

[candybits]

We work in groups of 4, but then we only did dissection for two of the units, and the rest were done using the prosections. Personally, I think being in a larger group makes it much more interactive and you have a lot more contribution from the group. When we study with the prosections, we are usually in groups of 6-8 people anyways.

 

[8744]

Pardon my ignorance. What is a "Prosection?"

 

[anamarylee]

We had 6 people per table and found a system that worked well for us. The previous day of a lab, someone would volunteer to read the disection and come prepared to direct it. We would take turns during the actual disection. Since a big part of the work is cleaning up, and there are only so many people that can do that at once, it gives you a chance to look at the other tables. What people would do is walk around and ask someone who is not actively disecting to tell them something that looked great on their table (a specific nerve, a blood vessel, a pathology). Since the lab exams are with all the tables it was good practice to see how the things you knew from your table look like at the other tables. Best advice: rotate the tasks, that way everyone gets to do everything at one point or another.

Hope this helps.

 

[chrys42]

Prosections are bodies that have been pre-dissected by the instructors to show us what we're supposed to see that day.

I was in a group of 5 and it was a bit crowded, but it really wasn't that bad. Believe me, there are days when the last thing you want to do is dissect.

Out of curiosity, how many schools have fumehood-equipped gross tables?? They're implementing them at my school for the incoming class, so we were the last to experience the joys of formaldehyde.

 

[Rads Resident]

Gross anatomy advice that worked beautifully for my med school:

A few day before the lab exams, we organized among ourselves that each team would leave a list of 5 or so anatomical structures on their cadaver that they think is particularly good. All the students then on their own looked over all the cadavers and sought out the listed structures which is important because you'll, of course, be tested on all the cadavers, not just the one with which you're familiar.

The unexpected benefit was that the professors actually tagged and tested us over a huge number of the structures we listed. It's like we did their work for them and found good structures.

Still the most important advice: Netter, Netter, Netter.

 

[monster2]

Of course, there's the sneaky way of tearing out structures that noone can identify, especially some of those sympathetic (postganglionic) plexi.

Rohen's book is pretty good because it has actual photographs of perfect dissections. It's a good guide to look for structures quickly.

 

[irlandesa]

good advice posted here guys. although having fewer people may make things a bit more comfortable in the lab, it is very important to be proactive and assertive in the anatomy lab if you want to learn and do well. I can vouch for this as a second year whose performance was less than grand (but passed) b/c I didn't do what I needed to do in the class. Make sure you look not only at your cadaver, but at as many others as possible. A way to get easy points on exams is to note structures that "stick out" on each cadaver (i.e. our cadaver had a really good right ureter, another had a great psoas muscle, etc..) while studying. Although monster is right on target saying that anatomy professors can and will pick out tricky structures for practicals, they are also bound to find a few "easy" structures as well. Netters is a must have, and be sure you know your cross-sectional anatomy as well. Good luck!

oh yeah, good point on the sympathetic nerves m2, know your sympathetic chain and sphlanchnic (sorry, can't spell) nerves while studying the thorax.