A variety of stresses and life crises confront the novice medical student. The one stress which is often overlooked or underestimated is the experience with the cadaver. Often the trauma of this experience is not recognized. The Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine conducts a program designed to humanize the cadaver experience and provide an important form of closure to what many medical educators call the students' first encounter with death. Beginning with a carefully planned orientation and concluding with a memorial service for the deeded bodies, the program enables students to recognize and address their feelings, and provides a salient endpoint for the entire cadaver experience.
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