Interviewees in the Gross Lab during facial dissections....

[78222]

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The look on their faces was priceless

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Good times, good times.

 

[Agent Splat]

We just don't take our interviewees into the anatomy lab during tours--we're explicitly told not too. Apparently somebody fainted once. Nobody ever seems to mind too much that they can't see the lab. I show them the other lab area that is pretty much identical minus the bodies and talk about it quite a bit when I guide tours though.

 

[lilnoelle]

I wanted to see the labs on my tours... but alas, none of them let me.

 

[NonTradMed]

When I was interviewing, alot of people really wanted to see the anatomy labs, but they usually didn't take us in. However, our school is doing it this year. For the most part, most seem ok with it, a few were a bit....taken aback. I don't even care if I'm stuck in the lab by myself in the middle of the night.....what a difference a few months of med school makes!

 

[LuckyBambooGirl]

When I was in undergrad our biology club toured the med school and we got to see the anatomy lab then. On my med school interview we didn't go in though. I wouldn't want to go in the lab in my good interview clothes anyway!!!

 

[Flopotomist]

We just don't take our interviewees into the anatomy lab during tours--we're explicitly told not too. Apparently somebody fainted once. Nobody ever seems to mind too much that they can't see the lab. I show them the other lab area that is pretty much identical minus the bodies and talk about it quite a bit when I guide tours though.

Wouldn't this be a good reason to TAKE people on a tour of the anatomy lab? I mean, the rare student that can't handle being in the anatomy lab may want to reconsider their decision to apply to medical school - hence you could prevent somebody getting into medical school that wasn't quite ready.

 

[Rogue Synapse]

We got taken into the anatomy lab during gross when I interviewed. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time - getting to have cadavers was the epitome of the "privileges" afforded to a medical student. Now, I sort of hate my life when I'm in there.

Funny how things change.

There was a group of fresh-faced men and women in suits in there a few weeks ago when we were finishing pelvis or perineum or something. Dismembered bodies (for the perineal views) and intestines abounded. It was awesome.

 

[Agent Splat]

Wouldn't this be a good reason to TAKE people on a tour of the anatomy lab? I mean, the rare student that can't handle being in the anatomy lab may want to reconsider their decision to apply to medical school - hence you could prevent somebody getting into medical school that wasn't quite ready.

The problem is that many people have to be slowly desensitized to anatomy lab. When you start it's a person that's largely covered except for the part you're working on and you slowly work inwards to the more visually disturbing stuff. If we start taking interviewees into labs midway through the semester, and the first time they see a cadaver is with the face ripped off or the top and bottom halves of the body separated, their reaction is not necessarily a fair assessment of how well they will handle it. Had my first experience with a cadaver been my instructor sawing the spine then literally snapping the torso off with his bare hands, I might have reconsidered too. But it takes time to get used to such things.

That, and it's not my policy, I'm just followin' the tour guide rules.

 

[Blade28]

Wait until you do this to a patient that's alive! Now THAT'S thrilling. 🙂

 

[Agent Splat]

Wait until you do this to a patient that's alive! Now THAT'S thrilling. 🙂

Been there, done that, did the prison time.

 

[psipsina]

One of the schools I interviewed at did this and frankly I was upset, not because of the bodies, but because the interview suit I was wearing was scheduled for another interview the next day and I didn't think smelling like cadavers was a good first impression, lol. I thought it was a little odd thou for people who had never seen cadavers before, at the beginning of the gross courses I've taken there has always been a lecture on decorum and respect for the cadavers before you are exposed to them, and then you start with something easy like a back before you are eased in . . . I think it would have been disturbing had my first cadaver exposure been one of our semi decapitated split skull open thorax and abdominal cavity bodies that we are currently working on.

 

[MossPoh]

it is odd that they don't take them in. In high school I did the nylf on medicine deal and they took us in and showed us various parts that were dissected, facial dissections, we went in and saw the cadavers and she explained how they used the band saw and prepared them. She also talked about how sometimes the string that holds their hands together would come loose and their arms spread out making it impossible to pull them out from storage which resulted in her climbing on top of the body to tie them back up or something. She was an odd odd girl....awww memories.

 

[Bertelman]

it is odd that they don't take them in. In high school I did the nylf on medicine deal and they took us in and showed us various parts that were dissected, facial dissections, we went in and saw the cadavers and she explained how they used the band saw and prepared them. She also talked about how sometimes the string that holds their hands together would come loose and their arms spread out making it impossible to pull them out from storage which resulted in her climbing on top of the body to tie them back up or something. She was an odd odd girl....awww memories.

It depends on the anatomy department's own policy. Ours is pretty strict about not letting anyone in. Student access is revoked pretty quickly after the class ends. The director has chosen to restrict access in honor of the donation. The family is assured that only those participating in the education will be allowed to view the cadaver. Obviously, interviewees not included.

 

[Rogue Synapse]

Wait until you do this to a patient that's alive! Now THAT'S thrilling. 🙂

I hope a career as a surgeon dowsn't involve skinning large portions of a patient's body or blindly hacking through fascia in search of a nerve that may or may not have already been cut. It's difficult for me to correlate anatomy dissection skills with surgical skills. At least I hope they're dissimilar, because I suck at dissection.

 

[45408]

I'd rather bring them in when there's a penis just sitting on the side of the table.

 

[FenderHM]

we cover the cadavers when we bring in the interviewees, but this one kid pointed to a body like 2 feet in front of him and was like "so, THATS a cadaver??" he was looking kinda green... it was awesome

 

[Northerner]

Wouldn't this be a good reason to TAKE people on a tour of the anatomy lab? I mean, the rare student that can't handle being in the anatomy lab may want to reconsider their decision to apply to medical school - hence you could prevent somebody getting into medical school that wasn't quite ready.

Fainting one time at the sight of a dead body for the first time does not mean you aren't ready for medical school, it means you weren't ready to see it right then, that day. Don't be overdramatic.

 

[BaylorGuy]

I'd rather bring them in when there's a penis just sitting on the side of the table.

Or a severed 70 year old man preserved penis. Make sure you cut it off/up right in front of them.

It occassionally occurs at our school. Most of the time it doesn't because labs aren't scheduled on interview days (which are fridays...probably not by rule, but by convenience). So, most of the time the lab is empty, unless people are in there trying to catch up or review on anatomy.

 

[fun8stuff]

I wanted to see the labs on my tours... but alas, none of them let me.

well this is because it is a violation of the cadavers' confidentiality. only med students and faculty are allowed in lab.

 

[scpichu888]

ouch.