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Nearly all of the individuals whom I worked with on the third floor of the Medical School Building were students. In order to attain a position at the lab, students must have a completed a minimum of 2 years of undergraduate studies in Life or Health Sciences programs. Typically, it is also strongly recommended that these students have taken Anatomy courses during their time at Queen’s and have had some exposure to the work done in the laboratory.
Lab Assistant/ Technician: Minimum of 2 years of Undergraduate studies in Life or Health Sciences programs
Laboratory Researcher: Minimum completion of undergraduate/ Bachelors degree in Life or Health Sciences. Working towards the completion of a graduate/ Masters Degree.
Laboratory Teacher/ Professor: Minimum completion of a graduate/ Masters Degree in Life or Health Sciences. Working towards the completion of a Doctoral degree.
Some of the tasks and duties I performed in the lab included:
• Cadaver Maintenance: changing the towels/ linens that the specimens are wrapped in, ensuring the specimens do not mould, moistening the internal and external systems of the specimens
• Laboratory Maintenance/ Organization: disinfecting and polishing tables and trays used for dissection
• Individual Dissection Projects:
a) Heart- outlining all major blood vessels of the heart (by removing fatty tissue) and removing any dried blood from inside the specimen
b) Right Upper Limb- removing skin and fat tissue to gain a better view of the ligaments and major muscles that make up the hand, wrist, forearm and arm
• Group Dissection Project: working alongside 2 third- year undergraduate students to remove the heart, lungs, oesophagus and trachea from the thoracic cavity of a cadaver. Then, to dissect the 5 lobes of the lung to expose the primary, secondary and tertiary bronchi.
What courses at RND have you taken or should have taken that would have been/ were beneficial to assisting you at your placement?
Courses I have taken at RND that were beneficial at my placement:
Grade 11 & 12 IB Standard Level Biology: Biology is defined as “the study of living organisms, divided into many specialised fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behaviour, origin and distribution.” (“Definition of Biology in English”. Oxford University Press. 2014.) Although I did not work with living persons, biology is likely the most useful and applicable course to my placement. Grade 11 and 12 biology provide me with basic dissection skills due to our work with the fetal pigs and a general understanding of human anatomy, notably, the digestive system, the circulatory system and the urinary system.
Grade 11 IB Higher Level Chemistry: Within the laboratory setting, I worked with and in an environment with a number of (dangerous) chemicals including: chloroxylenol and isopropyl alcohol, found in Dettol Antiseptic, as well as formaldehyde, ethanol, methanol and other solvents used for embalming. My chemistry class was my first exposure to such chemicals and taught me how to handle the potential hazards that could result from prolonged exposure of fume inhalation.
Courses that would have been beneficial at my placement:
Exercise Science: Although grade 11 and 12 biology provided me with some exposure to human anatomy, more specifically internal systems, I had little experience and/ or preparation with the musculoskeletal system and the role of these systems in the body. Exercise science would have provided me with additional useful information when dissecting my right upper limb, for example.
Was the coop placement a career that you would like to continue to pursue? Why or why not?
My coop placement as a lab assistant was not a career that I would like to pursue, however I would consider getting a part- time job at the lab, in a similar role. The primary motivation I have for not wanting to pursue a career in the laboratory setting is that I do not wish to study medicine nor molecular biology through work on cadavers, but rather, through the living. Working with the cadavers provided me with a lot of knowledge on structural and functional human anatomy and truly “connected the dots”, assembling all of my knowledge into one common understanding of the human body. There truly is no diagram, video or lecture that does it justice, however, now my goal is to see the structures I studied in action.
Are you career goals different now than when you first started coop?
My career goals now are not different than from when I first started coop. I continue to desire to work as neurosurgeon after high school, university and medical school. My coop placement allowed me to takes one of the initial first steps in attaining this goal, including becoming comfortable and familiar with (in) a laboratory setting, formulating independent work habits, grasping concepts of human anatomy and various dissection methods.
My placement, took place across the street from Botterell Hall at the new Medical School Building which opened its doors to students on September 22, 2011.
Workplace Name: Queen's School of Medicine
Address: 15 Arch Street
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 3N6, Canada
Website: http://meds.queensu.ca/
Number of Employees: 7524 faculty and staff members at Queen's in Fall 2010
Features of the new Medical School Building:
School of Medicine
Queen's University
• The Department of Medicine was formed in 1854 with an enrolment of 23 students and an educational staff of 6 lecturers at 75 Princess Street.
• The Faculty of Medicine was established on June 20, 1855, after a successful trial year and the graduation of 9 students with the MD.
• The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Kingston (PCKSK) was established by the Parliament of Canada and was affiliated with Queen's, teaching its courses on Queen's campus and in the Kingston General Hospital. Queen’s and the Royal College of PCPSK first taught women in spring of 1880 and instituted the first co- educational program in Canada in 1881. This combined program was replaced in June 1883 by Canada's first Women's Medical College, which found a home in Kingston's City Hall.
• Queen’s began readmitting women during Word War II.
• During the 1920s and 1930s the medical school gained new strength in patient care, teaching and research.
• Botterell Hall was established in 1979. Botterell Hall houses the Bracken Library, the office of the Dean of Health Sciences, research laboratories and teaching facilities for the departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Physiology, and was made possible through provincial funding as Queen’s agreed to join forces with local hospitals to coordinate activities with them in a cooperative health sciences complex.
• Queen’s University was established on October 16, 1841 by a royal charter issued by Queen Victoria and was modeled after the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow with a governing structure built around a board of Trustees, a Principal and a Senate.
• Classes officially began on March 7, 1842 when 'Queen’s College at Kingston' opened in a small wood-frame house on the edge of the city with 2 professors and 13 students.
• Queen’s was nearly forced to close in 1867 and 1868, as it had no official residence or stable financial aid.
• Principal William Snodgrass and other dedicated officials narrowly rescued the college with a desperate fundraising campaign across Canada in 1868.