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View Full Version : Revisiting the Anatomy Lab


Diane
26-03-2004, 06:58 PM
In the spring issue of the national Canadian Physiotherapy Association newsletter I saw an ad inviting participants for a 6-day intensive dissection of two cadavers, limited to 16 people, sponsored by a group of alternative health care practitioners. The ad fairly leaped off the page. I've never seen anything like it before in a PT publication.

I was thrown into a memory of being a squeamish 17 year old, of dusty anatomy labs, seemingly ancient anatomy professors who spoke English with great difficulty, casually handling bits of human body as though there was truly nothing creepy about that... I remember thinking, I have to go through this to be a physiotherapist? We were presented with cadavers that the med students had already dissected, bits of muscles flapping from bone, nothing to grasp onto, no framework to attach this scene to. At the time I experienced just ...exposure.

A year later it was over, and I felt I had learned nothing except how to contain my own dismay with how unappealing a learning situation it had been. How unprepared this young girl was at the time to appreciate this opportunity she had been given to see human form and its implied function. Yes, I passed anatomy, but a long time went by before pictures in anatomy books made me long to know more about the three dimensional reality of the body.

The chance to do this workshop has proven to be irresistible. I have signed up and sent in a deposit.

What have been others' experiences re: anatomy? Was it taught in your school with cadaver dissection? Is it still available to PT students as part of core cirriculum? World wide? Does anyone think it irrelevant?
Diane

BB
27-03-2004, 04:13 AM
Diane,
We did go through gross anatomy at my PT school. They are still doing it there. We actually had cadavers that we dissected which was a good experience. I feel similar to you though, in that I feel I would have benefited infinately more from the experience had it not been one of the first classes, at a point when I did not fully understand the importance of what I was seeing.
Cory

Diane
27-03-2004, 05:12 AM
Hi Cory,
Welcome to the board.
Thanks for replying.. may I ask where you went to school? I have heard that some schools are decreasing anatomy hours or even don't teach it anymore in a disection fashion...
Diane

BB
27-03-2004, 06:37 AM
Hi Diane,
Thanks for the welcome. I went to the University of Indianapolis in Indiana. That would be too bad if the anatomy hours were decreased.
Cory

Green Hornet
28-03-2004, 05:21 AM
Diane,
I have posted this comment in somewhere else.... don't remember where.

I read an article in a newspaper. In a US medical school, they have less and less actial disection. Instead, they are using a dissected PART and model to teach students.

I wondered how they can learn each part of the body is integrated and has a relationship with one another. It is a sad sad story.

By the way, Cory could tell you all how I enjoyed anatomy disection!!! I will leave it up to him.

BB
30-03-2004, 08:58 AM
I will say that when we where looking for Takoa we knew where to find him. I think that he slept in that stinky lab at night!
Cory

Diane
30-03-2004, 06:43 PM
Haha! Sounds like you love anatomy Green Hornet! Thanks guys. What were other peoples' experiences in anatomy lab, or lack thereof?
Diane