How do I get over my biology queasiness?

Question

I am trying to decide on a college degree, and I like the medical field, that is where the best jobs are. But i am horribly uncomfortable with biology, not so much studying it, but the pictures and the classes for disecting cadavers, and later the possible administration of needles and all that. How do i get over it?

All my friends tell me I will get over it after the initial shock of going through it, including my husband who is a dentist, but I am more afraid of fainting, or feeling like I am being cut ( I have had 2 surgories, one corrective and the second a c-section to deliver my baby, I am 25 and want to go back to school to finish my degree).

Answer 1

There's no way to tell without real life experience.  If you have time, you should volunteer with a local EMS squad and see how you do with treating injuries in an emergency setting.   Some people are able to get over it, but for others the queasiness is too strong and must look for other fields.  Talk to any [former or present] medical students you know, and see what they think.  Also, TV isn't the same as real life, but watch the Discovery Health channel, and see how you react to what they show there.  Good luck.

Answer 2

Well,in the real world,medicine is fast-paced ,especially if you work in the er. You won't have time to freak out.

Besides,cadavers are for practice,to become more at ease with administering needles,so you will feel confident in your skills at a later date.

Answer 3

Its amazing what you can get comfortable with.

If its an urge to throw up, you can stop the gag reflex by forcing a wide smile or, as my nursing friend does, for smelly stuff chew on some really intense nerve blasting gum. Anything that came to the desk dead was surprisingly easy to handle (and i'm a total mush with animals and such). Depending on the nursing program, you may not even have much cadaver or specimen work.

That said, some things just don't get easier. For me, that was anything that involved ending an animal's life for dissection or experimental purposes. There was also a moment when one of the felines we dissected had some unborn kittens... don't feel bad if you do feel bad as if you should be all tough and unfeeling. There is nothing wrong with feeling compassion.

For cadavers, it might help to talk with the instructors. Lots of times people offer their bodies for scientific research and instruction, so working respectfully with their remains is really fulfilling a wish of theirs (and what would be wrong with that?)

Answer 4

Really, you want to get in the medical field and you can't deal with PICTURES.  Honey please, do not get your trophy wife self in the medical field if you can't even look at some pictures.  Have you ever SEEN or SMELLED what happens in a hospital.  Try having to clean up the body of an old woman who just died and every time you move her, even slightly she makes a sound (this is caused by the air leaving her lungs).  Have you ever been in the E.R. when two patients were both hopped up on PCP and trying to stab each other?  If you can't handle pictures and dissections you can't handle the medical field!