How to prepare for a high school dissection lab? Watch a live kidney transplant first!

students sitting in auditoriumCarolyn Russell gave her high school college biology students an innovative way to recently prep for their forthcoming  fetal pig and cat dissection labs: They watched a live kidney transplant surgical procedure.

“Most of these students are pre-med/pre-heath and use this as a barometer into the life of a surgeon, PA, scrub nurse and anesthesiologist,” said Mrs. Russell, who also thanked Minisink Valley’s technology team for its assistance to make watching the procedure a reality.  “The (surgical) team does a phenomenal job describing their educational requirements, responsibilities and why they got into the field. This provides an accurate representation of the demanding nature of the medical field.”

Watching the surgery helps students gage their feelings about dissection and kidney procedure introduces the work they’ll do in  anatomy class in January.

Students felt watching the video helped prepare them for what would lie ahead they were to enter the pre-med/pre-health fields.

“I think it’s fascinating seeing inside the body and how to make an organ work to save someone’s life,” said Caleigh Woods.  “It was good, I loved watching it.”

“Watching the live surgery is much more effective in teaching about the body than just looking at pictures,” added Amanda Newton. “I thought the best part was having the close-up view with the camera being inside the body.”

Dillon Alvarez also felt watching the procedure had tremendous value, noting “strictly because it separates the wheat from the chaff.” He also learned “that I could stomach gore.”