lab practicals in medical school

[txprodigal]

i understand that you have practicals in anatomy lab but what about any other lab classes in medical school?

do you have practicals where you demonstrate how to spread a cell plate, etc (like introductory biology lab in college)?

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[aggie08]

i understand that you have practicals in anatomy lab but what about any other lab classes in medical school?

do you have practicals where you demonstrate how to spread a cell plate, etc (like introductory biology lab in college)?

No - you would be identifying slides, cultures, etc.

 

[BlueElmo]

No - you would be identifying slides, cultures, etc.

That's great. I hate labs.

 

[aggie08]

That's great. I hate labs.

Me too.

There are way less labs (after anatomy) then in undergrad and they are much more clinically oriented. We have 3 lab practicals for anatomy, one for biochem/cell bio. Not sure about other ones, but trust me when I say that outside of anatomy lab is not a big deal.

Edit: At my school, anyway. I'm sure other schools do it differently and research-oriented schools probably put more emphasis on lab.

 

[Jolie South]

We had lab practicals in anatomy and histology, then again in neurology. On our tests now in second year, we have slides with clinical vignettes but no separate lab practicals.

 

[ensuii]

We had lab practicals in anatomy and histology, then again in neurology. On our tests now in second year, we have slides with clinical vignettes but no separate lab practicals.

Same for us. Apparently practicals are different from institution to institution as well. We basically had a structure tagged and had to identify it (specific artery, nerve, muscle, etc). I've heard of some places where you're allowed to touch/move the structure and other places where the lab practical is multiple choice.

 

[txprodigal]

thanks for all the quick responses!

 

[aggie08]

Same for us. Apparently practicals are different from institution to institution as well. We basically had a structure tagged and had to identify it (specific artery, nerve, muscle, etc). I've heard of some places where you're allowed to touch/move the structure and other places where the lab practical is multiple choice.

Ours for anatomy is as you described, but multiple choice. No touching (which is frustrating, but understandable).

 

[armybound]

I wish our gross practicals were multiple choice

We have something tagged and must write what the structure is. No touching. You get 45 seconds per station.

 

[ThaliaNox]

Some of you guys have multiple choice gross lab practicals? I'm jealous! Ours are like cattle herding, no touching and think fast.

On the flip side, our histology is digital, on the computer, so no practicals in there. They give us a packet of images with our lecture test and questions on histology are integrated into the test. I like this method so much better than people I know at other schools who are still fighting with microscopes all the time. So much less wasted time.

 

[aggie08]

Some of you guys have multiple choice gross lab practicals? I'm jealous! Ours are like cattle herding, no touching and think fast.

On the flip side, our histology is digital, on the computer, so no practicals in there. They give us a packet of images with our lecture test and questions on histology are integrated into the test. I like this method so much better than people I know at other schools who are still fighting with microscopes all the time. So much less wasted time.

Yeah, it's really nice sometimes - but then I'll think I know the answer and look at the choices and start overthinking and beating myself down choosing between them and then bam! move to the next station. Then you can't go back to look. Sometimes I wish I could just write what I think it is a move on.

I think our practicals are set up extremely well. I am very, very happy with the course at my school thus far (besides HATING head and neck with a passion, but that's pretty common, I think).

 

[Gabby]

Same for us. Apparently practicals are different from institution to institution as well. We basically had a structure tagged and had to identify it (specific artery, nerve, muscle, etc). I've heard of some places where you're allowed to touch/move the structure and other places where the lab practical is multiple choice.

I WISH we had multiple choice for anatomy practicals. Ours are like yours -- we have to ID and not touch, but the questions aren't always "what's is the structure." They like to thrown in other questions that you can only answer if you know the structure, like the innervation or action (if it's a muscle) or they'll tag a nerve and ask the most proximal muscle it innervates (and cut the muscle, of course). We also have pathology and microbiology practicals. Histology is part of our written exam. We're given photos instead of slides.

 

[armybound]

I WISH we had multiple choice for anatomy practicals. Ours are like yours -- we have to ID and not touch, but the questions aren't always "what's is the structure." They like to thrown in other questions that you can only answer if you know the structure, like the innervation or action (if it's a muscle). We also have pathology and microbiology practicals. Histology is part of our written exam. We're given photos instead of slides.

I was expecting some extrapolation types of questions (ID muscle, figure out innervation/blood supply) but thankfully we have strict identification.

Our practicals also include radiographs

 

[aggie08]

I was expecting some extrapolation types of questions (ID muscle, figure out innervation/blood supply) but thankfully we have strict identification.

Our practicals also include radiographs

Yeah, we have radiographs and cross-sections. I hate cross-sections.
Several 2nd order questions on the practical, also - what innervates this? what is this an embryological remnant of? etc.

 

[armybound]

Yeah, we have radiographs and cross-sections. I hate cross-sections.
Several 2nd order questions on the practical, also - what innervates this? what is this an embryological remnant of? etc.

do you have a two-part anatomy exam, or is it all the practical? we do a written exam about that other stuff, then a practical for just ID

 

[mic2377]

I'll give a little input about histo practicals. They are "fill in the blank," and involve looking at slides, some digital slide images, and some electron micrographs. The only problem with histo exams is that the lecture/lab exams are back to back and therefore 4 hours long.

Everything is reasonable straightforward, and they attempt to use good quality images to minimize people griping and complaining about their grades.

 

[ThaliaNox]

We have a two part anatomy test, lecture and practical, but there are second order questions on our lab practical. Like someone said earlier, questions like "what is the embryologic origin of this structure?" "What nerve innervates this structure" "Which cranial nerves contribute to the innervation of this structure" etc.

 

[aggie08]

do you have a two-part anatomy exam, or is it all the practical? we do a written exam about that other stuff, then a practical for just ID

Two-part. The lecture test is more clinical scenarios and stuff. Not really "what innervates this or that?" type questions.

Most of our lab practical is ID though, maybe 25% second-order questions.

 

[Jolie South]

I was expecting some extrapolation types of questions (ID muscle, figure out innervation/blood supply) but thankfully we have strict identification.

Our practicals also include radiographs

We had lots of that. On our written tests, there were radiographs and clinical scenarios.