Lessons from the Dead: The Experiences of Undergraduates Working with Cadavers

Abstract

Dissection of a human cadaver is a time-honored tradition for teaching anatomy in medical education. However, in recent years, for a variety of reasons, including costs and ethical concerns, some medical programs have ceased cadaver dissection in exchange for virtual dissection of cadavers in cyberspace. Past research suggests that students find work on a cadaver to be distressing, but also rewarding. This study analyzed journal entries from 21 undergraduate students working with a cadaver in a gross anatomy course. An empirical, phenomenological analysis of the data identified 19 common themes among the participant's journal entries. In addition, the analysis disclosed how participants usually felt a need to justify the act of dissection. Finally, the analysis identified how students differed in the varied ways they coped with the ambiguous status of the cadaver, which was sometimes viewed as a deceased person while at other times experienced as a fascinating machine. Based on the findings, the researchers offer recommendations for helping students to better cope with the experience of cadaver dissection and to use the experience pedagogically to better prepare students for the stress of the medical world, especially issues surrounding death and dying.

Anxiety among Medical Students when Faced with the Practice of Anatomical Dissection

“…Some studies have reached values between 85.5% and 90% (Izunya et al, 2010;Mompeó Corredera, 2014) for this measure, and others just 15.8% (Dinsmore et al, 2001). The practice is perceived as satisfactory and students recommend it also as a way of learning anatomy (Robbins et al, 2009;Böckers et al, 2010;Bekele et al, 2011;Oyeyipo and Falana, 2012;Karau et al, 2014;Van Wyk and Rennie, 2015) (even in our case where the students have been trained in a digital environment), which is similar to data published elsewhere (Elizondo-Omaña et al, 2005;Azer and Eizenberg, 2007;Leboulanger, 2011;Qamar and Osama, 2014;Estai and Bunt, 2016). Also, up to 60% of the students suggested that the dissections offer a good opportunity to raise awareness and made them consider disease and death in more concrete sense, something that may not have happened had they not gone through this experience (Ellis, 2001;Aziz et al, 2002;Redwood and Townsend, 2011;Mompeó Corredera, 2014;Ghosh, 2017).…”

“…In addition to being a useful tool to learn anatomy, it improves the students’ spatial reasoning skills and helps them relate structures to their images as they are usually represented. Dissection also promotes self‐reflection and integration of the cognitive and affective skills required for medical practice (Rizzolo and Stewart, ; Ahmed et al, ), and it is a useful tool to encourage teamwork, professional development and leadership among the students (Pawlina et al, ; Robbins et al, ; Talarico, ; Flack and Nicholson, ). Some have argued it constitutes the foundation of formal anatomy teaching (Rizzolo and Stewart, ; Lee et al, ; Somanath et al, ).…”

Cadaver Ceremonies as a Foundation Step for Bioethcs: A Phenomenological Study

“…If a student fails to adopt in such a way then he / she may develop symptoms like exhaustion, "burn out," cynicism, impaired empathy in patient-physician relationships, or being unable to deal with the stress of working with live patients (25,26). The first student-cadaver encounter in dissection hall is the "nodal point" -from absolute convergence to comparative divergence [27].The present study is the extended process of our initiative named "cadaver disrobing".…”

Redeeming dissection course for medical undergraduates by compact structured schedules and frequent in-course-assessments

“…However, in recent years, for a variety of reasons, including costs and ethical concerns, some medical programs have ceased cadaver dissection in exchange for virtual dissection of cadavers in cyberspace 2 . The traditional anatomy education based on topographical structural anatomy taught by didactic lectures and complete dissection of the body with personal tuition has been replaced by a multiple range of special study modules, problem-based workshops, computers, plastic models and many other teaching tools 12 .…”

“…Past research suggests that students find work on a cadaver to be distressing, but also rewarding 2 . Hands-on educational experiences on cadavers can also stimulate student interest, increase knowledge retention and enhance development of clinical skills 3 .…”