<p>What is the grossest thing a Med Student can encounter in Med School? Obviously, I have heard that Med Students dissect dead bodies, but is there anything else premed students should know about?</p>
<p>My D.has mentioned the smell. You will have to have a change of clothes (including all under clothes - underwear,…etc.) and shoes. It is not the dead bodies smell, it is chemicals smell, which I personally do not mind at all. These clothes you will have to keep separately in plastic bags (when due to wash) and put it into washer separately. The smell will stay no matter how you wash it. If you wash with other items, they will smell also, you will not be able to wear them outside of lab.<br>
My D. has never been grossed out by dead bodies or any bodily fluids or even the grossest insects who she played with when growing up ever since the very young age. She had to play with them alone, no other girl will come close. I could see very early that she would be OK in Med. School. When she was 6 they took vile after vile of blood from her vein. She looked down and smiled, I was completely taken by her reaction.
Dissecting of dead body did not bother her at all. Smell is the only thing that she has mentioned negatively, and as I said, I do not mind it at all.</p>
<p>Extensive surgical debridement of necrotizing fasciitis. Horrific odor and very scary when it is from MRSA.</p>
<p>By far the grossest thing I’ve had to do over the course of my entire education was actually in undergrad when we had to dissect a cockroach. After that, nothing in med school was that bad.</p>
<p>Basically anything a doctor could be exposed to, a medical student could also be exposed to during clinical rotations (that’s the whole point of the rotations). Think horrific trauma, nasty infections that have been raging for weeks, nec fasc (like frugaldoctor mentioned), etc etc etc.</p>
<p>Nothing worse than the smell of a necrotic leg with anaerobic infection- oh wait, I take that back. Worst smell ever was when during an autopsy, the pathologist nicked a debilitated woman’s bowel- we all nearly died.</p>
<p>^ I was about to say - worst smells I’ve had have been in the medical examiner’s department doing autopsies.</p>
<p>My least favorite so far would have to be debriding a massive abscess that turned out to be infested with anerobes. And I never thought I’d be relieved at the sight of Bovie smoke!</p>
<p>The close runner up was all the delightful sounds, smells, and sights from a few weeks on colorectal service. </p>
<p>(And my anatomy scrubs weren’t as disgusting as Miami’s D’s, from the sound of it. I got a cheap pair of slip on tennis shoes at Target for anatomy and tossed them when I was done. Good move.)</p>
<p>" I got a cheap pair of slip on tennis shoes at Target for anatomy "
-Did not go even that far. The very old (I believe that they could have been mine) pair of sneakers did just fine. It might be even more than one. I never tossed my old sneakers, I have them in every drawer and several pairs in my car, since I take any chance to walk for exercise, so I have a collection of them. So, do not buy, ask relatives for some old pair(s) and then toss them. You will have to toss everything (including all undies) when you done with the lab. And while you using them, keep them separtely in several tightly closed plastic bags (when taking home for laundry) and as I mentioned before, wash them separately also.</p>