Future Health Careers Club Goes to the Cadavers

Before leaving on our trip, everyone was excited and talkative about what would await us at the cadaver lab. This year instead of going to Saint Louis University for the cadaver lab like usual we were going someplace different, Logan University. I along with many other seniors and the advisors were excited to see the differences between how SLU did the cadaver lab and how Logan will do it. 

As soon as we got to Logan, we were greeted by the people who would be walking us through the entire cadaver experience. They are medical students who are graduating soon. One of the differences between the cadaver lab at Logan and SLU is that before we went into the room with the cadavers we went into a separate room to talk beforehand. Then they took us into a room that had many cadaver labs in there which was another difference from SLU and the room was much larger as well. There were two different stations in the room. 

The teaching styles, however, were the exact same: both informative and hands on. There were two different stations in the lab: one for organs and the other for the cadaver. When looking at both of these experiences it only reinforces that I want to become a doctor and deal with anatomy because everything was so interesting to touch and learn about. I did appreciate both cadaver lab tours because they each had something that the other didn’t and I learned different things at each place. At Logan I was able to see a pacemaker in the actual heart which is something that none of us had ever seen before. At SLU, it was my first time going to a cadaver lab so it was a bit overwhelming at first learning all of this information but interesting just the same. 

Junior, Molly Hector said that before going into the lab being her first time she felt nervous and anxious, but also excited. After being in the lab she said, “It made me want to pursue a health career more because it was very interesting to get a preview of what we would be learning in the future for my career of physical or occupational therapy.” Her favorite part was holding the brain. She said, “It was my favorite part because it was something that we don’t get to do in high school as far as the human brain goes and being able to be all up and personal with it was something that I really liked.”