Use of plastinated specimens in rural medical and nursing education: a novel solution.

Rural health care in India is predominantly served by primary and secondary hospitals. Secondary hospitals that have been running long term usually have a nursing school attached to them to provide a sustainable workforce of nurses. Thus, the nursing school becomes an integral component of a secondary hospital structure. The training of nurses includes a course on basic human anatomy. Although nursing schools attached to medical colleges rely on the availability of fresh cadavers or formalin-preserved prosected specimens, the permission to procure such specimens and the facilities to store them are difficult to obtain in a rural setting.