Let me preface this by saying I HATED gross anatomy. We're in a condensed curriculum at my school and we dissected four days a week. Sometimes our "day off" was a Monday so we would dissect four days in a row that week. Each day, I'd eat my lunch with dread, watching the clock creep towards That Time when I'd have to put on my scrubs and trudge the Last Mile to lab. I never got used to the smell, the freezing lab, or the fact that I was partaking in the cutting up of a human being. When I learned I passed the course, I'm not even kidding, I jumped up in the air. I hope I'm conveying how much I didn't like anatomy.
But you know what? Replacing hands-on gross anatomy with yet another simulation/app/computer program would be a terrible idea. Just because I detested anatomy doesn't mean I didn't understand that it was necessary and offered some real benefits that could not be obtained in any other way. Since anatomy did not come easily to me, and I had to study like the devil to successfully pass, I looked in many atlases and resources....and none truly mimicked the variety and intricacies of the real body. That was exactly the problem-I'd study so much and know the pictures inside and out (pun intended?); then I'd get to the real thing and be like, "WAT."
Everyone loves computers...and saving money...but some things simply can't be reduced to a simulation or a file or an app. And some things can't be skimped on.
Gross Anatomy needs to be part of medical student education in all of its emotionally disturbing, malodorous, intellectually torturous glory. It needs to remain to torment but also benefit future students. After all, it's part of what we signed up for.
