Medicine School Fears ... HELP !!!

Well here is my dilemma ... I love the whole idea of med. school and I am genuinely interested in having my career in medicine ... the only problem is well I am completely freaked at the idea of having labs on dead humans ... I know it sounds abit stupid of being phobic of your own human race but ever since I was a kid I've had a bad experince with the whole "dead people" idea (I was hospitalized and I was walking around in the hospital and saw the mortury ... it was in Kenya so there weren't any real security measures to keep patients away from this area and quite frankly it was gruesome) ... I did not sleep for days and now I don't know whether or not I should pursue in my dream job because of this phobia or give up and be a bum ... I was just hoping some med student could give some insight on how they or someone they knew overcame the whole idea of doing labs on dead people or if anyone has any advise PLEASE SHARE ...

p/s: This is not a minor phobia ... seeing dead people on TV (CSI etc.) is like a horror movie to me ... I seriously don't fall asleep for weeks ...

Reply 1

Carpediemxx

17

From experience at Bristol, i can't talk from other universities' perspectives, they break you in realllll slow. Our first DR session was on the the ethics of it all, and then after making sure everyone was ok with the idea of seeing a dead person disected, we saw a couple of specimens. Anyone feeling ill or upset etc could sit down , or leave the room, or chat with the demonstrators. TBH, you very quickly see it as anatomy, something to study, than it being a dead human being who had feelings etc.

I can understand your anxiety but it will be ok over time, dont suffer in silence tho when you arrive, do let a demonstrator know, they will be really good about it.

Reply 2

No Future

17

Go to a med school without dissection?

What about when you meet dead patients?

Reply 3

8EnglishRoses

10

You'll get used to it very quickly, don't worry about it. You become desensitised very quickly. Saying that, I know girls at my medical school who sign in to dissection every week and then leave immediately. You'll be alright, don't let it put you off.

Reply 4

AEH

8

Our place was the opposite, we got thrown into a big room of dead people on the first day of teaching, more of a ripping-off-a-plaster approach. Better for most people, worse if you've got a bit of a phobia like yourself.

I would say don't be put off, find methods to try and desensitise yourself to the whole thing and work up from there, there's no point blowing off a whole career just on that basis. It sounds like a big job, but it is possible to work yourself out of a learnt fear problem like that.

Reply 5

username153949

2

There are some medical schools which only do prosection

Having said that, you do realize you'll have to pronounce dead patients when you are a doctor, and probably will kill a few patients due to your stupid behaviour during your first few years right?

Reply 6

2009er

6

i think peninsula have very little dissection, so maybe apply to places like that.

Reply 7

belletrix7

I'm going to Peninsula in September hopefully! Yeh they don't do dissection, they have like computerised bodies which go into cardiac arrest for you and fake bodies and stuff. Can I ask is it dead people or dead people cut up? I don't think that either should stop you if medicine is for you.

Reply 8

Fluffy

15

Half of our lecturers seem more dead inside than the cadavers - not sure which is more scary :wink:

Reply 9

BackDoorEntry

Fluffy

Half of our lecturers seem more dead inside than the cadavers - not sure which is more scary :wink:

haha

Reply 10

sharkky

OP

thnx every1...and to reply to whether im freaked out at dead ppl or dead ppl cut up ... im really scared of just dead ppl... ive skipped funerals due to tht... and totally go bizurk showering and "burning" my clothes if i do end up going (well actually i get my mom to do my laundry twice if tht happens) ... but ive actually realized its not tht theyr dead tht bothers me (i actually took part in an experience in germany where they had the dead ppl waxed... its callled body worlds exhibits and i survived tht so im not sure how ill do when faced with the body one on one) it is the fact tht they r blue nd cold nd tht they are so lifeless....is my imagination going wild on me when i say tht the experimental bodies u meet r blu and typical of wat is shown on csi .... or is reality absolutely opposite to this cliche? plus when do u start experimenting on them so i can prep myself by then and do they ever expect u do dissect alone?

Reply 11

theatrical

5

sharkky

thnx every1...and to reply to whether im freaked out at dead ppl or dead ppl cut up ... im really scared of just dead ppl... ive skipped funerals due to tht... and totally go bizurk showering and "burning" my clothes if i do end up going (well actually i get my mom to do my laundry twice if tht happens) ... but ive actually realized its not tht theyr dead tht bothers me (i actually took part in an experience in germany where they had the dead ppl waxed... its callled body worlds exhibits and i survived tht so im not sure how ill do when faced with the body one on one) it is the fact tht they r blue nd cold nd tht they are so lifeless....is my imagination going wild on me when i say tht the experimental bodies u meet r blu and typical of wat is shown on csi .... or is reality absolutely opposite to this cliche? plus when do u start experimenting on them so i can prep myself by then and do they ever expect u do dissect alone?

You'd never dissect alone, there just aren't enough bodies bequeathed to allow it. The bodies (cadavers) aren't blue either - they have been embalmed, so they don't actually look all that real, and there's no blood. They certainly look nothing like they do on CSI!

After the first few weeks you forget that it was a living person and it just becomes a tool for learning anatomy. One of my friends had a big problem with dissection for most of the first semester. Once he told the tutors about it they arranged some one-to-one sessions for him and by the time we returned after christmas he was fine with it.

Medicine School Fears ... HELP !!!

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