whoRyou Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 As a student, would you rather have a prosected cadaver in gross anatomy or dissect it yourself? Explain your answer below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoRyou Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 I, for one, would think I would like to do the dissection myself as I am a visual learner as well as tactile. I would have the best of both worlds; seeing and touching and then either backing up of what I either read in the books and/or listening to the lecture (this is coming from a Pre-PA student and watching others). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max PA17 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Our anatomy class was only 2 months long over the summer. TAs started the dissection or did most of it for us before we got to lab. We dissected some but they did most of it. It saved us a lot of time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamo24 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 IMO, I would have prosected. We had over 125 students (combined PT/PA/Masters/PhD students) with only 3-4 faculty members. We pissed away so much time waiting for help to make sure we weren't destroying our cadaver. If you did a poor job dissecting, your cadaver was pinned with incredibly difficult identifications so you had a lot riding on your ability to do a high quality dissection. At a minimum, I would have appreciated a minimally prosected with us having to do maybe 30-50% of the remaining dissection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cg02186 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 We share cadavers with the DPT students and they do the dissections. At first I didn't like it but it is a huge bonus to us. It really gives you time to study what you need to look at without having to spend hours trying to scrape off fat, fascia, etc. It is a big benefit to have them already doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tori Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 We used prosected cadavers this summer and I'm so glad. In my opinion dissecting is just a huge time suck and being in a 24 month program, I can't imagine that's the best way to spend the time. We spent much more time on the lecture portion of anatomy such as what conditions are associated with particular nerve injuries, etc. That seems much more useful to me than being able to identify the fibularis longus tendon at the ankle. However maybe if you're interested in orthopedic surgery, dissection is something to look for in a program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newton9686 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Prosecting is a great tool for review. But there is something to be said about preforming your own dissection. It is way more engaging that just flipping through layers. Plus it builds comfort with the human body and using surgical tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterallsummer Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Agree, better to get the whole hunk of flesh. But either is fine, ultimately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted September 17, 2015 Moderator Share Posted September 17, 2015 having done both, I got more out of doing the dissections myself during an undergrad upper division bio class than the prosected method used in PA school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHU-CH Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 ... I can't imagine that's the best way to spend the time.... This is the big issue. I think without a doubt dissection is the best way to learn anatomy. If you were trying to learn anatomy in isolation, this is the way to go. In PA school, dissecting will cut into time you could likely better spend mastering physio, the physical exam, etc. It's all about balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyndhurst Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Currently taking Anatomy and we do our own dissection in groups of 5-6 per cadaver. I have found it incredibly useful especially when it is difficult and we have to tease out structure and take our time. This allows us to discover the relationships between structures and at times (brachial plexus in particular) it was an invaluable learning experience. There are 4-5 TA's along with the Professor for 8 groups so there is always someone available to help guide or answer questions. We also have 24 hour access to the lab to come back in and examine the cadavers of other groups and get a look at things we may have missed or inadvertently removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly_Diana Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 I loved that our program required us to do the dissection. It was a great time to really reinforce what we were learning by having to actually dissect out everything and give us such an appreciation for the human body. It allowed us to learn about the relationships between muscles, arteries, veins, and nerves that existed and remember where they were. It also was a great bonding experience with the lab group I had. We had TAs and 2 professors present to assist when we might have gotten stuck or also just for clarification for what we were looking for. It was a lot of work, but it was an amazing learning experience that I am so glad I was able to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inspired Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 At my program, we have prosected cadavers because we share with another local PA program on their campus. The other program dissected the cadavers because they started about a month before we did, and at first it seemed a little disappointing since I was prepared to be doing it myself. However, I feel that it truly made the best use of my time in going through the cadavers. I really don't think that by not doing the dissection I have any less of an understanding of how things work together/where they are located just because I didn't dissect them out. It was also really interesting to know the differences in some of the cadavers that were discovered through the dissection process that our professor was already able to point out ahead of time for us to look at. We also have pretty much 24/7 access to the lab which I think is a huge bonus to be able to go in on our own time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoRyou Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 I loved that our program required us to do the dissection. It was a great time to really reinforce what we were learning by having to actually dissect out everything and give us such an appreciation for the human body. It allowed us to learn about the relationships between muscles, arteries, veins, and nerves that existed and remember where they were. It also was a great bonding experience with the lab group I had. We had TAs and 2 professors present to assist when we might have gotten stuck or also just for clarification for what we were looking for. It was a lot of work, but it was an amazing learning experience that I am so glad I was able to do. IMHO, reinforcement is so important when it comes to studying especially in medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAchick Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Having done both, I strongly prefer prosection labs. I did a prosection anatomy course prior to my dissection course at PA school. In our program there are 4 students/cadaver. All of us put in a TON of work on those bodies, and most of us didn't learn much during that time. The learning took place after labs and on weekends, when we could take a step back and look at the relationships (you need this time, so make sure your program allows it). A prosected body would have offered that without the 15-18 hr/wk wasted on dissection. Plus bodies dissected by PhD anatomy TAs who have taken the class many times over are better bodies to study than those done by PA students who have seen those structures maybe twice before. Occasionally the TAs would do a prosection and a demo. That was GOLD for us. I wish the whole class had been that way. Looking back, a lot of us asked programs specifically if they had a high cadaver:student ratio in a dissection lab....and I really wish I hadn't put so much value in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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