BARRY WILLIAMS /Special

Khajae Newell, 15, (left) and her aunt, Andrea Brown, a nurse at Emory University Hospital, look at a cadaver during a visit to "Bodies: The Exhibition" at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center.

"Bodies: The Exhibition" offered thousands of people their first education about the anatomy of the human body during its six-month stay in Atlanta that was set to end Sept. 10. For graduate nursing students whose work is caring for and healing of the body, the lessons weren't new, but they were richer and deeply meaningful.

Colleen Burke, BSN, MSN, an August graduate of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing pediatric nurse practitioner program, spent three hours going through the exhibit on her first visit.

"As a health care professional, it's so amazing to see the body actually there in front of you, instead of in a textbook," she said.

In the spring, the Graduate Nursing Council of Emory's nursing school took a group of graduate students and guests to see the exhibit at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. It went over so well that the council took two more groups in the summer.

"We got a great response from students every time," said Burke, council president.

Because the exhibit showed actual cadavers dissected to reveal the various bones, muscles, organs and systems, some students worried that the display might be grotesque. "It's not. It's an amazing experience," Burke said.

The bodies are preserved through an innovative process and are respectfully presented in different poses.

"It's very professionally and tastefully done and there's such wonderful educational information on the walls that even someone with no background in anatomy and physiology would learn a lot," Burke said.

Burke said that although she had the opportunity to dissect a cadaver in an undergraduate science course, many nurses don't get that experience because of the cost.

"You can only learn so much from textbooks. For some students, this was the first time to see the various systems, like the circulatory and digestive systems, in 3-D. It just makes you realize how intricate the body really is," Burke said.

For Kim Allen, RN, MSN, CNS, and a PICU nurse at Egleston Hospital in Atlanta, the room that showed fetal development was the most fascinating.

"There were specimens from a very young fetus to right up to delivery and good increments along the way, so that you could see all the development. I've never seen that outside of textbooks," she said.

Allen said that, as a nurse, what she most wants to see are fully developed, healthy babies, but seeing the stages of fetal development will help her talk to prospective parents.

"I'll be able to tell them how far along their baby has developed and help them realize that there really is a child forming in there," Allen said. "I really enjoyed the baby room the most, but the entire exhibit was excellent because you got a really good view of all of human anatomy."

Since the exhibit opened in March, more than 20,000 students from kindergarten through college have seen it, according to Cheryl Muré, director of education for "Bodies: The Exhibition."

"I'd walk through, [and] there would be teachers with laser pointers helping students learn about the body. It was almost like grand rounds [in a hospital]," Muré said.

"What's so fascinating is that you're not looking at an artist's rendering. You're seeing what the liver, heart and circulatory system really look like. That makes learning extremely real and very compelling."