Physical and psychological effects towards cadaveric dissection among first year medical students

The medical students are under constant stress as the academic course they are entering needs a lot of dedication and emotional involvement. Cadaver dissection is an emotionally charged issue. The effects are both physical and psychological. The emotions can interfere with the educational task. The present study was conducted to evaluate the physical and psychological effects among first year medical students towards cadaveric dissection and the impact on them. A predesigned questionnaire of 21 items including socio-demographic characteristics, physical & emotional reactions and mixed feelings, attitudes of students, was prepared & distributed among 100 first year medical students. All the participants (100%) had suffered from some physical and psychological symptoms after entering and leaving the dissection hall. All (100%) of them experienced some formalin odour with the symptoms after first encounter with cadaver in dissection hall. Nausea (40.0%) was the most common physical and fear (26.7%) was the most commonest psychological effects among the participants. All the participants had opined that cadaveric dissection was important in anatomy learning and for that all of them did not want to replace the cadaver dissection. The emotional issues and its impact on first year medical students should be paid due attention, so that students can prepare themselves to cope up with the physical and psychological reactions regarding cadaver dissection.