MD Anatomy lab emotions...

[tignog]

I'm getting really worked up over anatomy lab. I am afraid that I am poorly prepared (mentally) to look at my cadaver's face this week - we are supposed to be skinning the face and then removing the brain, two things that I am really not looking forward to. I have been having nightmares and anxiety about anatomy lab in general and I don't know what to do to make it through the next few labs. Do any of you have advice on this?

I feel awful about disliking lab because I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn from these people, but it's really hard on me. I know that this must be difficult for my classmates, too, but it seems like none of them are having these problems. What do I do?

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[wanderingorion]

You are definitely not alone in your feelings. Part of this learning process is learning to partition your emotions when you need to. I think talking to your classmates/anatomy group would help.

 

[libertyyne]

I think uncovering the face and performing the crani was the most emoitionaly impactful part of my dissection. Holding a man's brain in my hands, of what used to be the seat of his consciousness. But after a little while I realized that this was not the man rather just the corporeal body.

 

[MrMe123]

My first day in anatomy lab I was in the first group to start on our cadaver, and they threw the towels off so he was naked (and his face wasn't hidden yet) and they made us all grab the cadaver and flip it. It was a lot to process, and something about anatomy lab always affected me really profoundly and made me feel ashamed and guilty. It didn't matter that the person donated their body to medicine, it was an incredibly visceral reaction for me. I never got better with it, and because I had some really avid people on my team who loved the lab, I actually didn't attend the last few sessions (the face and brain like you said. I did the TBL portion but not the actual dissection).

I had no problem during clerkships in the OR and was considering OB/Gyn for most of 3rd year. So don't think this is necessarily an indication of how you'll do later. For me, it was specifically the act of doing this to a dead person.

Point being, it's totally normal to be disturbed by skinning a dead person's face. I probably didn't deal with it in the most emotionally mature way, by instead avoiding it. I would talk to someone that you feel close to in your group before so they know how you feel, and that way you won't be standing over the cadaver quietly having these things racing through your mind. Sorry this is difficult for you, it's completely understandable.

 

[Raney Schauer]

What do I do?

Stay busy. Don't give yourself time to dwell on thoughts that don't serve the mission. Focus on the little details while you teach yourself to be fascinated by what's in front of you.

 

[Money Moniker]

Weird. I think the overwhelming majority of people in medical school look at anatomy lab sessions as a chore to be completed a couple of times each week. I haven't yet come across anyone who was heavily impacted by it on an emotional level.

 

[Raney Schauer]

Weird. I think the overwhelming majority of people in medical school look at anatomy lab sessions as a chore to be completed a couple of times each week. I haven't yet come across anyone who was heavily impacted by it on an emotional level.

You think. You don't know what's going inside a person's head, especially in an environment where no one wants to appears weak in any way.

You're in med school, you should probably learn about people at some point.

 

[tignog]

Weird. I think the overwhelming majority of people in medical school look at anatomy lab sessions as a chore to be completed a couple of times each week. I haven't yet come across anyone who was heavily impacted by it on an emotional level.

This is discouraging.

 

[MrMe123]

This is discouraging.

I know a handful of people from my class who talked with me about how they felt the same, and it was probably because I was open talking about my feelings with it. People in med school feeling alone in their problems because everyone is afraid to seem weak isn’t new

 

[Raney Schauer]

This is discouraging.

Don't listen to this one.

 

[UnoMas]

Hair, face, and hands bothered me the most.

I remember being in the lab late a night going over the flexor and extensor compartments of the arm on my cadaver. Hours into my study, I suddenly realized I was literally shaking the hand of an old lady, with red nail polish on. When she had her nails done, she was probably getting herself ready for a party or some fun events, little did she know it was her last time having it done. I packed up my stuff and went home.

 

[DrSnips]

Everyone's reaction to dealing with cadavers is different, there's nothing wrong with feeling freaked out, ashamed, guilty or any other negative emotion. I recall being the only person in my group of 4 who was willing to remove the eyes from their orbits. In so doing, I was rewarded with the discovery that our cadaver had gotten cataract surgery. I was able to remove the artificial lenses and show them to our group. We all found it interesting. On the flip side, in my group of two men and two women, neither myself or the other guy felt comfortable dissecting the genitalia. Fortunately the women had no issue with it and we were all able to learn from their work.

Med school breeds competitive attitudes, but anatomy lab is a place where teamwork is crucial. Rely on your teammates to support you though the areas of dissection you find difficult. Even when not holding the scalpel, you can have your anatomy book open and point out important landmarks.

 

[Goro]

Everyone's reaction to dealing with cadavers is different, there's nothing wrong with feeling freaked out, ashamed, guilty or any other negative emotion. I recall being the only person in my group of 4 who was willing to remove the eyes from their orbits. In so doing, I was rewarded with the discovery that our cadaver had gotten cataract surgery. I was able to remove the artificial lenses and show them to our group. We all found it interesting. On the flip side, in my group of two men and two women, neither myself or the other guy felt comfortable dissecting the genitalia. Fortunately the women had no issue with it and we were all able to learn from their work.

Med school breeds competitive attitudes, but anatomy lab is a place where teamwork is crucial. Rely on your teammates to support you though the areas of dissection you find difficult. Even when not holding the scalpel, you can have your anatomy book open and point out important landmarks.

/thread!

 

[mistafab]

I think your feelings are fine. You’re being hard on yourself/isolative - there is no need to be.

I remember taking a break in the middle of a dissection a few weeks into it. Our group just stopped together and looked at our ‘first patient.’ We took like a few minutes and just talked about how we were doing and what we were doing. We all just felt honored to be given the task of learning from someone’s body, and we all felt kind of weird. This sort of opened the dialogue and made the rest of our anatomy time together really good.

I would highly recommend sharing your thoughts with your group. Invariably, they are experiencing this unique experience for the first time alongside you. This isn’t just learning, this is a life experience shared by very few. Sharing it can definitely shape your perceptions.

 

[tignog]

Hair, face, and hands bothered me the most.

I remember being in the lab late a night going over the flexor and extensor compartments of the arm on my cadaver. Hours into my study, I suddenly realized I was literally shaking the hand of an old lady, with red nail polish on. When she had her nails done, she was probably getting herself ready for a party or some fun events, little did she know it was her last time having it done. I packed up my stuff and went home.

I had a super similar experience - one of the ladies has bright red nail polish. I noticed it in the middle of the upper extremity practical and I couldn't concentrate for the rest of it. It's things like this that make it difficult for me to cut because it gives the cadavers personality. I can't think of them as objects to learn from when I see choices that they made in tattoos, nail polish, hair cuts, etc...

 

[tignog]

I would highly recommend sharing your thoughts with your group. Invariably, they are experiencing this unique experience for the first time alongside you. This isn’t just learning, this is a life experience shared by very few. Sharing it can definitely shape your perceptions.

Thank you. My group has very little dialogue aside from things directly pertaining to the dissection protocols. I think this is a great idea.

 

[tignog]

Sorry this is difficult for you, it's completely understandable.

Thank you for your helpful words.

 

[JooceMan137]

Whatever you do, don't show your professor(s) any disgust or apprehension to dissection. They take the cadaver labs very seriously, and it could lead to conflicts in the long run.

 

[kb1900]

I completely stopped dissecting once we got above the neck. My group understood, I wasn’t the only one, and I made up for it by overpreparing from images and focusing on the atlas and dissector manual during lab

 

[MSTP18]

Maybe the cadavers at your school will be different but the autopsy cadavers at mine barely looked like people (at least, in comparison to medical and forensic autopsies of non-fixed people).

That being said, I was definitely nervous about the face but was underwhelmed when it was finally revealed. There were people who left the room in tears, others who could watch but couldn't bring themselves to do anything, those that tolerated it, and the few who enjoyed it.

Genitals ended up being the only part that really disturbed me (and frankly still does).

Whatever you do, don't show your professor(s) any disgust or apprehension to dissection. They take the cadaver labs very seriously, and it could lead to conflicts in the long run.

I think as long as you are not disrespectful of the fact that these are literal people who have given their body over to you in the most intimate way imaginable, no reaction is inappropriate.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I have a family member who is an administrator at a nursing home. Part of her job involves dealing with deceased patients whose families don’t want to deal with them. Instead of spending any money on a funeral service or cremation, the families sign documents allowing the home to take over “disposal” any way they see fit.

These people get sold to the med school.

So the worst part about anatomy lab for me was knowing that some of the cadavers on the table never intended to be there.

 

[libertyyne]

I have a family member who is an administrator at a nursing home. Part of her job involves dealing with deceased patients whose families don’t want to deal with them. Instead of spending any money on a funeral service or cremation, the families sign documents allowing the home to take over “disposal” any way they see fit.

These people get sold to the med school.

So the worst part about anatomy lab for me was knowing that some of the cadavers on the table never intended to be there.

oh man that is rough.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

I have a family member who is an administrator at a nursing home. Part of her job involves dealing with deceased patients whose families don’t want to deal with them. Instead of spending any money on a funeral service or cremation, the families sign documents allowing the home to take over “disposal” any way they see fit.

These people get sold to the med school.

So the worst part about anatomy lab for me was knowing that some of the cadavers on the table never intended to be there.