The College of St. Mary has a new Physician Assistant program this year, and along with its first cohort of 30 students, it has a new 8-cadaver lab.
Dr. William Humphrey oversees the lab, and says it’s rare for a small college to have a lab this size.
He says many of their graduates will practice in either underserved rural settings or urban settings with very high patient numbers and that this cadaver lab will help give them the knowledge and confidence they’ll need.
"We want them to be able to use the experiences now in the cadaver lab, where they are comfortable thinking independently, acting independently, and discovering things on their own, where they are not necessarily waiting for someone before them to come through and tell them what to do or give them much guidance, we want very very independent thinking graduates and providers coming from our program for sure, and the cadaver lab really helps us get there.”
Humphrey says offering this first-hand experience with cadavers is a bit unique, and that a more passive experience is fairly common in PA training programs.
UNMC’s Deeded Body Program will provide the cadavers, and the CSM students will hold a ceremony to honor the gift of the donors at the end of the school year.
For more information, the website is CSM.edu