Microbiology Nuts & Bolts
  • Home
  • Basic Concepts
    • What is infection?
    • Normal flora
    • Diagnosing infection
  • Microbiology
    • Basic bacterial identification
    • Interpreting bacteriology results
    • Interpreting serology results
  • Infection Control
    • What is infection control?
    • Universal precautions
    • MRSA
    • Clostridium difficile
  • Clinical Scenarios
    • Respiratory infections
    • Urinary infections
    • GI infections >
      • D&V
      • CDAD
    • CNS infections
    • Skin & bone infections
    • Sepsis
  • Antibiotics
    • Antimicrobial Stewardship
    • How antibiotics work
    • How to choose an antibiotic?
    • Reviewing antibiotics
    • Antibiotic resistance
    • Testing antibiotic resistance
    • Penicillin allergy
    • Theraputic Drug Monitoring
  • Guidelines
  • Lectures & Lecture Notes
    • Medical Students
    • Curriculum for the Foundation Program
    • Foundation Year 1
    • Foundation Year 2
    • Other Lectures
  • The Bug Blog
  • Buy the book...
  • NEW Edition Updates
  • Peer Reviews
  • Our Facebook page
  • Want to know more?
  • Contact

Something interesting and exciting?

28/10/2013

 
There is something interesting and exciting going on in the
worlds of pathology and medical education...

Okay, I have been told many times that exciting and interesting are words that should never be used to describe anything related to pathology (which to most people appears to be dull and boring!) but I think it’s worth a blog...
Dr Nicki Cohen, a Consultant Neuropathologist at Frenchay
Hospital in Bristol, and Deputy Programme Director for the MB ChB Medical Degree at the University of Bristol, is undertaking a Delphi project for undergraduate pathology education on behalf of the Royal College of Pathologists. This is the first time that I am aware of within the last 20 years that someone has tried to organise a specific curriculum for pathology at undergraduate level. I think
it’s an excellent initiative, as there is currently no set medical student curriculum from either the medical schools council or GMC, each medical school sets its own!

The basic process as I understand it is to seek the opinion of those within the Specialties such as Haematology, Immunology, Clinical Biochemistry, Histopathology, not to mention Microbiology and Virology, as to what constitutes the essential knowledge for newly qualified doctors (Foundation Year 1). Not the stuff we’d like them to know but the stuff they MUST KNOW before getting to the wards. 
Picture
I have contributed my “two pennies worth” which is essentially the ten point list from the book, Microbiology Nuts and Bolts.

What do junior doctors need to be able to do?
1. Take a clinical history
2. Perform a clinical examination and elicit relevant clinical
signs
3. Recognise sick patients
4. Implement emergency care for sick patients
5. Formulate a differential diagnosis
6. Investigate a differential diagnosis
7. Prescribe appropriately and safely
8. Monitor and review patients appropriately and
effectively
9. Prevent transmission of infection between patients
10. Recognise their own limitations and when they need to ask for help
 
Just like in the book, I have then fleshed out my response to Dr Nicki Cohen with more detail about the specific areas of:
• Basic concepts, understanding infections, what micro-organisms cause them and where they come from, as well as how to diagnose infections
• Microbiology, investigating patients with infections and how to make the best use of a laboratory microbiology service
• Infection control, how to safely manage patients with transmissible infections without spreading these infections to either themselves or other patients!
• Clinical scenarios, common and important infections, arranged in body systems to make them simple to follow
• Antibiotics, how to prescribe them safely, how to review antibiotics and what to do if patients are failing to respond to treatment, as well as empirical guidelines and information about individual antibiotics
• And emergencies, the life threatening infections, which all doctors cannot afford to miss, and how to manage them
So I know what I think should be in a microbiology curriculum, but what do you think? This question is aimed at medical students, those already qualified and those who can no longer remember medical school! 

If you were setting the infection curriculum, what areas of
infection do you feel you should be taught and how much time would you want set aside for infection teaching?

Post your comments either on our Facebook page or on the Bug Blog, it would be great to hear your ideas…

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Blog Author:

    David Garner
    Consultant Microbiologist
    Surrey, UK

    Please DO NOT advertise products and conferences on our website or blog

    Categories

    All
    Antibiotic Resistance
    Antibiotics
    Basic Concepts
    Clinical Scenarios
    Guidelines
    Infection Control
    In The News
    Microbiology

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Antibiotic Resistance
    Antibiotics
    Basic Concepts
    Clinical Scenarios
    Guidelines
    Infection Control
    In The News
    Microbiology

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.