Students get hands-on experience with dissecting organs

Our Health & Social Care students were given the chance to be able to get hands on experience with real life body parts* this week with the help of The Post-Mortem Live team coming to our Campus. 

At this LIVE, hands on show, our students got to get up-close and personal with real anatomical specimens to undertake the dissection of real organs. Working alongside award-winning human anatomist Samuel Piri and his clinical team, our students observed, dissected and learnt more about the anatomy terminology.

"Over 88% of Healthcare professional agree that by seeing and touching real organs makes the more confident professionals."

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The first part of the day was based around learning the real terminology used in theatres. Taking their newly learnt lingo, the students began practicing on each other, finding the right organs and pointing out where they would be placed in each other's bodies. 

The students then quickly moved on to getting hands-on with real organs, and learning the skills of dissection to remove and extract humor from the eye, to take a look behind how the eye truly works. 

Next up was the safe removal of the brain and thorough examination to study the inside, exterior and the blood system that surrounds it. The students were able to study parts of the brain they are yet to have seen in their studies and were amazed with how complicated the brain really is.

Internal Dissection

This part of the process saw a few of our students shy away from the gore on the tables as they were getting to grips with further internal organs. Methodically dissecting the internal cavities and removing the organs, our students dissected the trachea, lungs and sectioned the heart and major blood vessels for closer inspection.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event and during the whole time I was engaged. My favourite part was dissecting the heart and the lungs. I learnt about the anatomical position and more in-depth anatomy overall, as well as how to properly dissect the heart into sections. I would highly recommend this event to anyone who enjoys human anatomy and physiology".

Tiegan Higgins, Student at LMC

Another body part the students were able to dissect was the digestive system, from the start at the stomach to the end at the rectum. Finalising the session, our students got to look into the effects of smoking and vaping on the lungs and had the chance to discuss healthy vs. damaged lungs with Sam and his team.

This was a great opportunity for our students to be thrust forward into the real world and away from their classrooms to get real, hands-on experience of something others could only wish to be involved with. 

"The national school tour production 'Operating Theatre Live' was an excellent event for Health and Social Care students. Working with Sam, they learnt about the anatomy of the airways, lungs and heart, linking into the effects of smoking and vaping on the lung anatomy. Students also had the opportunity to study the brain and its functions, as well as the eye and the digestive system. This was an excellent opportunity to enhance learning as the dissections are something we can't do in the classroom and allowed hands on practical experiences.

Having this knowledge on anatomy and physiology will also support sessions in the newly opened health training ward where they can apply this to patient care".

Caroline Openshaw, Programme Area Manager for Health & Social Care

* Please note that the specimens are not of human kind. The production company use state of the art special effects and specimens of porcine origin to replicate and simulate the post motem experience.

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