Cadavers, death anxiety, and the early development of the medical double‐consciousness

The objective of this research is to examine the effects of cadaver use on medical student socialization. Medical school exposes students to cadavers, bringing them face to face with death and dying and requiring them to perform acts (dissection) that in any other context would be taboo or even criminal. Student responses to these stressors can be heavily influenced by the curriculum, lab setting, and faculty, impacting the development of their “medical double‐consciousness” (partitioning the humanity of the individual from the scientific needs of the patient). An immersive anatomy course provided a uniquely controlled setting for this study in that it is short, unopposed by other courses, and is the students’ first academic learning activity. It thus provides advantages over previous studies that looked at anatomy courses of long duration and interspersed with other activities that present confounding variables. Data were gathered largely using participant observation and interviews. The preliminary results of this research project identify the variables that impact a student's personal and professional life, such as death‐anxiety coping mechanisms, acquired social roles at the dissection table (cutters, readers, floaters, etc.), and general attitudes prior to, during, and after their gross anatomy lab experiences. Funding from NSF IOS‐1050154, NSF IOS‐0517257, and OU‐HCOM. Grant Funding Source : National Science Foundation