Microbiology Teaching

[EtOHWithdrawal]

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Would anyone out there be willing to share how micro is organized at their program?

The program I'm in seems to have a relatively hands off approach, and I was curious if this is similar to other people's experiences.

Do you have learning objectives or stated learning goals? Rotation goals or checklists? Bench checklists? Unknown plates? Workshops or exercises in identification? Standard texts? Anything else?

Also, if anyone would be willing to share a copy of their syllabus or program outline for micro, I would be very grateful. You could PM me if you don't want to share it publicly.

Thanks in advance.

 

[levels x3]

Hands off vs. hands on...Be careful what you ask for. More work does not necessarily mean better education...

 

[EtOHWithdrawal]

Hands off vs. hands on...Be careful what you ask for. More work does not necessarily mean better education...

Noted and understood. This information would be used to guide my own studying more than anything else. I don't believe anybody around here wants more busy work to be created.

 

[sohsie]

A lot of times, there are good teaching resources lying around that you can use. My program had an old kodak slide carousal (sp?) with a bunch of fungal and parasite teaching sets with teaching guides, and I would flip through a carousal each day. Admitedly, they were somewhat out of date, but they still helped. There may be CDs lying around as well that you can go through.

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Honestly, if your goal is to pass the micro on the boards then I can offer a little advice:
1. Listen to the Osler lectures. They cover *almost* everything you need to know. Listen to them multiple times. I used the 2004 CDs and they were pretty spot on.

2. Memorize the Mais chapter. Use a flash card technique. I used Mnemosyne - it's free. I went from near-zero functional micro knowledge (we do it in year One) to having that chapter (along with most of the others) memorized cold inside of 1.5 months. No **** - I was actually kind of amazed and micro was one area of CP where I'm confident that I missed no board questions on.

No one is going to be able to teach you micro in a formal didactic curriculum. You have to do it on your own time.

 

[yaah]

Going through the color plates in Henry and/or Konemann is helpful for boards study.

 

[CameronFrye]

Going through the color plates in Henry and/or Konemann is helpful for boards study.

I definitely heard this from someone who just took boards. Basically every micro image on the exam was similar/identical to a pic in Henry's or Konemann.

 

[EtOHWithdrawal]

Thanks for the replies! 🙂

 

[Gene_]

Going through the color plates in Henry and/or Konemann is helpful for boards study.

+1 on Konemann

 

[Gut Shot]

Would anyone out there be willing to share how micro is organized at their program?

The program I'm in seems to have a relatively hands off approach, and I was curious if this is similar to other people's experiences.

The words "microbiology" and "teaching" don't often get mentioned in the same sentence in my program. I think that's pretty standard.

 

[yaah]

+1 on Konemann

There are also textbooks which talk about histopathology of parasites in tissue sections. There were a few questions on my boards that asked about this. Definitely worthwhile to review - Konemann doesn't really cover it well.

 

[path28]

I'm more of a lurker, but have enjoyed our micro rotation so wanted to share a little regarding the curriculum:

My program uses a more interactive/hands-on curriculum than what others describe, and I have felt it to be extremely helpful for remembering things.

We are assigned to different areas in the lab and the techs are involved in teaching us and we get to work up organisms ourselves under their supervision (i.e. blood cultures for a few days, then stools, etc. etc.). The medical director meets with us usually twice a week to quiz us on things from the week to reinforce high-yield principles. We are also involved in leading mini-teaching sessions during lab rounds for the clinicians that attend.

I had done some reading before rotating on the benches, but the concepts stuck with me a lot better after having worked up organisms myself from the beginning.

At the end of the rotation we are given specimens with unknown organisms and we get to figure out how to identify them using differential media, biochemical tests, etc.

Some people may argue that this is just learning how to be a tech, but I would say that it definitely helped me remember the material, plus I think it's reasonable when we're in training to potentially run these labs that we should have a good understanding of what is being done at the benches.