DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTIDISCIPLINARY CLINICAL CADAVER PROGRAM

The traditional fixation techniques used in many university bequeathal programs has enabled students to learn the intricacies of the human form for decades. This process has served as a hands‐on means of learning human anatomy primarily used by undergraduate learners. Postgraduate and practicing clinicians however rarely accessed this resource until the development of the Clinical Cadaver Program at Dalhousie University. Their training and skill acquisition primarily occurs at the bedside of live patients and while important, may pose a patient safety risk. To address this issue, a proportion of the donated human cadaveric specimens within the established Human Donation Program are now being prepared using a modified light‐embalming technique developed by Dalhousie University. The Department of Medical Neuroscience is now able to prepare specimens that maintain their natural tissue integrity without the normal hardening and rigidity of tissues that occur with traditional cadaveric fixation techniques. The result is a safe, very realistic high fidelity form of simulation that allows clinical practice and research in performing medical procedures using the human body. The program continues to grow as demand for access to specimens increases. It is now a recognized and critical component of an integrated provincial simulation program. Competency based learning is now a mandated educational movement in postgraduate medicine. This move requires learning opportunity exposure that in many instances are simply not available with enough frequency to ensure skill competence. The clinical cadaver program provides for safe practice in a controlled environment that will allow clinicians to attain and maintain procedural competence.