Cadaver Program
RRCC’s state-of-the art Cadaver Lab facility, completed in 2016 at the Arvada Campus, is a shared space that provides hands-on human anatomical education in three ways:
1. Through the Cadaver Outreach Program that offers workshops for a fee to area healthcare professionals or students enrolled in high school, vocational or non-RRCC classes wishing to further their human anatomical education.
2. Through coursework in RRCC’s Physician Assistants Program (PA).
3. Embedded Cadaver Laboratory curricula for students enrolled in select RRCC healthcare or related courses.
Cadaver Outreach Program
The Cadaver Outreach program collaborates with the State Anatomical Board of Colorado to provide hands-on cadaver-based human anatomical training for students enrolled in healthcare or related courses in high school, college and vocational education institutions outside of RRCC.
Workshops last approximately 3-3.5 hours. Students are given the opportunity to hold representative organs for close observation. A trained cadaver instructor conducts question and answer sessions throughout the workshop.
Workshops can be customized for individual programs so that particular organ systems and anatomical features can be emphasized. Workshops can be arranged during the day or evening hours, Monday through Saturday.
Workshops can accommodate 10 to 24 students. Up to two chaperones can attend for no fee. Gloves, goggles, lab coats and a student packet are provided.
To request more information or to schedule a workshop, please click on the email link below:
or call 303-914-6067
Physician Assistant Program (PA)
Students accepted into the PA Program will complete Clinical Anatomy I and II (PAS 609/611 and PAS 610/612) as part of their required coursework. Each course has two complementary components, 1) A cadaver lab component offering hands-on experience of professional prosections and 2) A clinical component emphasizing normal and pathological structure and function supported by extensive medical imaging examples.
Physician assistant students will learn normal human anatomic structure and function, clinically-applied human anatomy, and the anatomic changes seen in pathophysiological processes. The anatomic basis of the physical examination will also be emphasized.
RRCC has the only community college-based PA Master’s degree curriculum in the nation and has been granted continuing accreditation status by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant until March 2027.
“We are proud of our accreditation preparation efforts and how we demonstrated the strength of the Red Rocks PA Program,” said the Director of RRCC’s PA Program Christa Dobbs. “As we near the start of the Master’s degree curriculum in the fall of 2017, we know we have a strong foundation on which to continue to produce excellent PAs.”
To learn more about RRCC’s Physician Assistant Program, please see the program website by clicking on the link below:
Embedded Cadaver Laboratory Curriculum
Students enrolled in select RRCC Healthcare-related courses will be able to enhance their human anatomy foundation by attending hands-on human cadaver labs as part of the lab component of their class work.
Students will be given the opportunity to explore the complex variations of human anatomy and observe up close the effects of disease and age on human structures. Students who choose not to attend the cadaver portion of their lab class will be offered an alternative assignment.
