Prosected cadavers vs. cadaver dissection

[optimistic3]

I've been lucky enough to interview at a few schools now and the last place I interviewed at was the only one that uses prosected cadavers. I've searched the forum and looked at what a few people have said and it's pretty obvious that you will learn more from dissecting your own cadaver. I know myself and I know that I would learn much more from doing the dissection. 

 

So my question is, just how big of a deal is this difference? I've got my pro and con list for each school I've interviewed at and I'm wondering how much I should weigh the use of a prosected cadaver as a con, if if even is.

 

On the other hand, I have a friend who has done a full dissection and she told me to go to a program with prosected cadavers because otherwise it's too tedious and there's not enough time to do it all.

 

To those who have been through it before, what are your thoughts?

 

Edit: I'm not sure how those tags got there. I didn't do that.

[MT2PA]

I was happy to have prosected cadavers.  Programs that did full dissection spent an entire summer and often entire days dissecting.  Aside from seeing very detailed anatomy, I don't feel like not having that has hindered my education in the slightest.

 

When push comes to shove and we only get 1 year of didactic education - I feel like there are other ways to spend that time preparing me for clinical year and practicing that will be more beneficial on a daily basis.  I've heard that those who are considering surgery or ortho may enjoy/benefit from full dissection.

 

All in all, though, I can't say this was a big factor in my decision making process.  Since prosection typically is the 'lesser' option and I actually preferred it, I based my decision more on location, didactic structure, 'fit', clinical rotation options, etc. 

[MyNameWasUsed]

It's not that big of a difference. Some schools don't even offer cadavers and their students become PA-Cs anyways. I wouldn't give any weight to cadavers tbh. I'm currently a 1st year at a cadaver dissecting school and we spent 6 hours every week in lab dissecting for 10 weeks. I didn't really enjoy that much cause during dissections I didn't feel like I wasn't learning much, instead I was cutting out subcutaneous tissue and cleaning off connective tissue for  6 hours every week. So after 6 hours a week of dissecting cadavers, we all had to go back in for X hours to actually learn the anatomical features on every other cadaver (50 other cadavers). 

 

If the cadavers were prosected to begin with then I probably would have learned everything during the 6 hours of lab and wouldn't have had to go back in during my own time 

 

Would I attend the school I'm at if given a re-do after knowing their dissection method? Yes, it was just 10 weeks. I'm done dissecting for the rest of my life now. Who cares. Aint that big of a deal. 

 

Knowledge wise? I honestly don't think I'm more knowledgeable than someone who just did prosected bodies.

 

Pick the school that you think you'll be the happiest at. 

[SHU-CH]

The PA curriculum is very compact, and schools have to make hard decisions about how much time to allocate to different subjects. The decisions are made on the basis of feedback from instructors, students, alumni and data from grade curves and test scores. Most PA students would probably never believe it, but faculty also try to think about how much time students need to spend on course material outside of class.

 

If you have a need (or a desire) to ensure an exquisite knowledge of anatomy, there is probably not a better method than a dissection course. Having said that, there are a variety of other teaching methods that work fine. From my limited, one-person perspective I prefer that students spend more time in physiology because it is so foundational for many other courses.

[optimistic3]

Well here I was thinking that prosected cadavers wouldn't be "good enough" so I guess I'm glad I asked. It seems there is a consensus that it will be sufficient. Thanks so much to everyone.

[jlumsden]

I just completed a program that did not use cadavers.  I did fine (as did my classmates), and don't feel my education suffered for it.  This should not heavily influence your decision.

[UGoLong]

As not a great performer in anatomy (maybe that's why I gravitated to internal med!), I'd like to add my 2 cents.

 

We had prosected cadavers in my prereq and self-dissected ones in PA school. I learned a ton more in PA school.

 

The prosected course wasn't much different than using computer software or looking at pictures. The self-dissected cadavers -- even with our initially crummy dissection skills -- taught me more about what is in proximity to what.

 

That said -- at least from my experience -- I'm sure you could get through either way and still be successful.