Anatomy Lessons, a Vanishing Rite for Young Doctors

NY Times ^ | March 23, 2004 | ABIGAIL ZUGER

[Bilbo Baggins]

They've actually worked some of that sociological puff into the Anatomy course itself.

"In medicine now there's a big emphasis on teaching students professionalism," said Dr. Lawrence J. Rizzolo, the director of the Yale course.

I guess this means don't leave instruments and sponges in your patient and don't cut off the wrong limb.

"In anatomy we begin the discussion — how the student will function as a professional, learning how to react to an uncomfortable situation, facing death and dying. We get them in touch with their feelings."

When the anatomy course ends, the Yale students thank their donors, as they call the cadavers, in a ceremony that includes original poems and musical compositions. Every first-year student attends, Dr. Rizzolo said, and the service has come to celebrate not only the rite of passage of the anatomy course but also the students' immersion in medicine.

"Studying medicine is a privilege, and the service paid homage to that," said Zach Goldberger, a Yale student who performed an original piano elegy at the ceremony his class held three years ago.

Two years ago, Yale students created a colorful quilt to commemorate the anatomy course, with panels dedicated to each cadaver in their course.

Poems, elegies and quilts for your cadaver, sounds a little strange to me.

[Mamzelle]

re: Poems, elegies and quilts for your cadaver, sounds a little strange to me.)))

The macabre circumstance brings out the "black humor"--a defense mechanism that helps a lot of med pros cope--as long as they don't try to share the humor with the public, who would naturally regard it as insensitive.

I have observed that cadavers are often named by their prosection students.

Mostly there's the dire warning by the pathologists/morticians--"Don't play with the corpses. You'll get arrested and expelled." Consider the temptation, come Halloween....