Why a checklist before every lab
A dissection bench carries real hazards, and most of them are sharp. A scalpel drawn toward the hand cuts, scissors and probes slip on a wet specimen, and preservative fumes reward poor ventilation. A pre-lab checklist is not bureaucracy — it is the routine that makes safe, prepared, respectful work automatic, so that on the day a cut runs deeper than planned the student's hands already know what to do.
It also does something quieter: it forces the student to arrive ready. The most careless lab partner is the one who skimmed the procedure in the hallway. This checklist closes that gap. Print one for every dissection, work top to bottom, and do not pick up a single instrument until the last box is checked.
The goal is not to follow rules. It is to walk to the bench already knowing the hazards, the steps, and the structures you expect to find.
1 — Safety
Nothing below this section happens until everything in it is done. No exceptions, every lab, every time.
- Safety goggles on — over the eyes, not pushed up on the forehead. Preserved tissue can release fluid under the blade.
- Nitrile gloves on, correct size, no holes; sleeves down and long hair tied back.
- Closed-toe shoes and a lab coat or apron; no loose clothing near the tray or the blade.
- The specimen's preservative and handling notes read — how it was fixed, any odor or ventilation needs, and how it is to be disposed of — before the seal is broken.
- A sharps protocol in place for scalpel blades and pins — a designated sharps container, blades swapped when dull, and every cut made away from the hand.
- Sink, running water, paper towels, and first-aid kit located — you know where each one is before you start, and any nick is handled before anything else.
- Disposal plan confirmed — you know exactly where the specimen, its tissues, and the spent preservative go when the work is done.
2 — Setup
With safety confirmed, lay out the station so the work flows without scrambling mid-dissection.
- The full procedure read end to end — not skimmed — so you know what step comes next.
- All instruments gathered and clean, laid out in order of use — scalpel, dissecting scissors, probe, forceps — on a clean cloth or tray liner.
- Dissecting tray and pins ready; the specimen positioned and pinned so the target structures are reachable without over-cutting.
- Instruments matched to the task — fine scissors for delicate membranes, the blunt probe for separating tissue, forceps for lifting — so a heavier tool is never forced where a lighter one belongs.
- Specimen obtained and brought to room temperature, rinsed if the procedure calls for it, and blotted so the surface is workable.
- Light and magnification set — a bright, even light over the tray and a hand lens on hand for small structures.
- Lab notebook open to a fresh, dated page with the title, the specimen, and the day's target structures already written.
3 — Readiness: the pre-lab questions
This is the section that separates a technician from an anatomist. Before the first cut, the student should be able to answer these in writing — in the lab notebook, in their own words.
- What is the question? State, in one sentence, what this dissection is meant to reveal or compare.
- What is the technique? Name the approach the dissection depends on — the external survey, the mid-line incision, the organ system you are tracing — and why it fits this specimen.
- What is my prediction? A specific expectation — where a structure should sit, its approximate size, or how two systems should connect — written before the first cut.
- What am I recording, and how? Name every structure you will locate, how you will label it, and the drawing or note that will capture it.
- What could go wrong? Identify the one or two steps most likely to damage a structure before you can observe it, and how you will protect it.
- What does success look like? Know, before you begin, what a clean result looks like — the structures exposed intact and correctly identified — so a mis-cut raises a flag at the tray, not a week later.
A student who answers all six is not guessing their way through a recipe — they are performing a dissection they understand, with structures they can already roughly locate. That is exactly the readiness the lab-notebook entry is built to capture, and the kind of preparation a lab defense is designed to reward.