School is offering a summer dissection...is it worth it?

Started by The Hound
Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine
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The Hound

The Hound

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2+ Year Member
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Because of COVID, my school did all of our anatomy virtually this year. Now that things are normalizing, they are offering an opportunity for students to do a full cadaver dissection over the summer. I'm kind of on the fence about doing it and wanted to see what other people thought. I love anatomy, but I'm kinda bummed that I would lose my last chunk of free time. What do you fine folks think? Would this experience be worth it? Hoping to go into radiology if that matters.
 
Only you can answer that question. And you probably can’t answer it until later. If you don’t do it, you may regret it if you decide something surgical or anatomy focused. Me, in peds, looking back, if I gave up my summer for that, I would consider that a complete waste, but I don’t use anatomy that much.

Radiology uses anatomy a whole hell of a lot....
 
My school has an anatomy fellowship where some students, in the summer between their 1st and 2nd year, teach the PT, OT, AA, etc students anatomy in the cadaver lab. I did it, and it was a fantastic experience - mornings were dissection and afternoons were teaching. There were eight lab groups to teach and by the time I taught the material for the 8th time, I was completely solid on it. Anatomy was one of my strongest sections on my level 1.

If it’s not an experience like that, don’t bother tbh. Dissection takes a ton of time and unless you’re teaching it off the top of your head to a whole bunch of people, it’s not going to stick.

You can learn the structures much quicker and easier through an anatomy atlas app.
 
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Tragal Pointer said:
Probably bunk. Also it does not matter if you want to go into a surgical speciality or not. You will learn that anatomy in that residency.
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Same for radiology. There are a decent amount of radiologists who did not enjoy gross anatomy during first year. It's vaguely related and doesn't matter. Not doing extra dissection isn't going to hinder you.

If you have ever been into the OR before gross anatomy then you'll immediately realize how irrelevant that form of dissection is. The tissues look nothing like real life. The focus is not on functional anatomy. It's overrated and a big misconception, OP.

Absolutely spend that time doing things you enjoy with friends and family or doing research. No one has ever been given an edge in residency applications by doing that. It doesn't sound like the leadership position or TA position.
 
If the bodies are already pre dissected then it could be worth it. If you have to do the dissection yourself hell no, especially if you live in the midwest.

Pro tip: cadavers usually come from the local area, and will reflect that population. do you want to spend your summer removing 30-50lbs of excess fat? Do you know how miserable it is to extricate a kidney or cardiac muscle in an obese cadaver? Its really difficult and the bodies with a higher BMI did the worst preservation-wise in my lab.

Was anatomy rewarding? Yes in a way. do I ever want to do it again? no
 
Depends how long and how much work is split between people in your tank. If it takes up your whole break, probably won't do it. If it takes up a portion like you said, then maybe. Like someone said, if there are teachers walking around and teaching, it'll make a difference. I remember a lot of anatomy from my dissection days, one of the best time of med school.
 
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I'm glad I did dissection...I never want to do it again. Probably would lean towards finding another use for your time / rest.
 
In hindsight I wish our cadavers were prosected, or at least partially dissected. So many hours spent picking apart fat and fascia that I could have spent actually studying...

So no OP, I wouldn't unless you have an undying passion for anatomy
 
Funny responses. I found that cadaver dissection was worthwhile for learning anatomy, but I don't know if I'd burn a summer off for it...

If I were in your shoes, and had nothing else going on that summer, I might consider it. But only if it was full dissection of an actual cadaver. If it is prosections/partially dissected, I wouldn't bother, because then you're not getting the experience of dissecting a cadaver.

All you'll miss out on is a classic med school experience if you skip it - I don't think you'll miss too much educationally.
 
Spectreman said:
You guys ragging on cadaver dissection are breaking my heart. My anatomy knowledge helped me stand out in the OR so many times on auditions. I wouldn’t have matched without it. Loving dissection so much is a huge part of why I wanted to do general surgery.
Click to expand...

You could have stood out in the OR without ever dissecting a body with vu medi and google images when prepping for cases.

Traditional anatomy dissection is a waste of time, especially if it is in your free time.

I was number 1 in our class for anatomy by a large margin and it did nothing for auditions. Approaches and live tissue is way different than a cadaver where someone pins something in an obscure way.

Even if you are interested OP this is a bad decision.

Enjoy life.
 
Going into rads. Hated anatomy lab. There’s just no point spending hours scraping through fat to find out the nerve you were looking for is in the bucket.

All of the anatomy I learned for both class and the OR I learned from atlases, the essential anatomy app, and random google searches. Heard acland videos were good too but never used.
 
I find that looking at Nettergrams or grays anatomy actually gives me a better visual for the structures than a cadaver does. If you’re feeling deficient in anatomy, look at Netters instead IMO
 
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