WARNING
The Great Indian Medical Colleges take great pride in their Great Indian Anatomy Knowledge
Yes, how we all (or at least, the under average student like me) dreads Spotters (our term of endearment for the Practical paper).
Imagine this:
Now, here comes the “fun” part… 8-)
Now imagine, for the First Block, I had to cover the entire Upper and Lower Limb:
Did you know that the hand alone has 20 muscles?!
Margaret Alexandria Yoong
The Great Indian Spotters
Liberal use of anatomy jargon ahead.
Proceed with pillow under head.
– and the Faculty at the Melaka-Manipal Medical College (MMMC) and Kasturba Medical College (KMC) are no different.
Practical Anatomy (Gross, Histology, and Embryology) are given grave importance during our daily lessons and
even more so during our Examinations.
It is because of this that we have a separate Practical Anatomy paper during our Block and University Examinations (Blocks and Unis respectively).
You see, when you have easy access to a cadaver 8 hours a week, you are expected to know it like the back of your hand:
anterior and posterior; superior and inferior; medially and laterally; superficial and deep – NO EXCEPTIONS.
And not just on your own table’s cadaver (it’s about twenty of us per table),
but on any cadaver (full or body part or section) that you’re presented with, within a “reasonable” amount of time.
And that is the “logic” behind Spotters.
A Dissection Hall filled with a row of trolleys (the ones they wheel the cadavers in) in one big circle.
There are 30 stations marked on that circle:
5 rest stations;
5 stations for bones;
1 station for radiology (X-rays);
1 station for an embryology (about the development of the human body before birth);
and the other 18 for an assortment of full body cadavers dissected at various regions of the body,
or a segment (usually it’s a saggital segment of the head exposing the inner parts),
or even an isolated organ.
Each candidate is assigned one station as they enter the Hall.
In ONE MINUTE, we have to:
(a)
identify the part of the body / bone / X-ray / model;
(b)
answer one or two questions relating to that part:
it could be the structures attached to it if it’s a bone;
or its course (how it runs through the body) if it’s a vessel (artery or vein) or a nerve;
or its insertion, origin, action, development, nerve supply if it’s a muscle,
or its development if it’s an organ.
When your minute is over, an annoying buzzer sounds and you run or scamper to the station on your right,
going round and round till all 30 are done.
that’s the pectoral region (upper chest area near the nipples), shoulder girdle, axilla (armpit), arm, and hand for Upper Limb;
and gluteal region (your royal a$$), thigh, calf, and leg for the Lower Limb.
For the Second Block, it was the entire Respiratory (RS) and Cardiovascular System.
Did you know that in a cadaver (and especially when you’re suffocated by that ONE MINUTE deadline),
a nerve looks just like a vein or an artery, or even a muscle?!
(*shame* For my last Spotters, I identified the internal jugular vein as the posterior belly of digastric… *shame*
And for the Block before that, I mistook the long head of biceps femoris as peroneus longus
[one’s a muscle in the thigh, the other’s a muscle in your lower calf]… *shame*)
February 16, 2004