Dissections in Irish Medical Schools by Yeoh Seng Lim

Medicine is a course which requires its students to study a wide amount of knowledge regarding the human body, from basic anatomy, physiology to advanced clinical skills and knowledge in order to understand the underlying pathophysiology of a disease and the management of the disease. 

In order to help students become familiarised and proficient  with the fundamental knowledge taught in first year medical syllabus, Irish Medical Schools has implemented a more practical approach in educating its students. Apart from attending lectures on anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and professionalism, students are also required to attend lab sessions to enhance their learning experience.

NUIG offers students the chance to learn through dissection of a cadaver. The learning opportunities of students are further maximised by breaking the whole 200+ medical students attending first year to smaller groups of 10 per dissection table. UCC offers learning with mainly prosections (dissected cadaver that is designed to demonstrate anatomical structures). Prosections help students visualize rare conditions that they may not see outside of their textbooks.

The process of becoming a doctor is very challenging, and many schools provide various facilities and tools to give students an edge to master their fundamentals in order to have a successful career in the future. See the table below for a comparison of how anatomy is taught.