Rationale use of microbiological diagnostic techniques: A module for undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Introduction: As we all know that 2nd-year professional students are just the beginner to learn the clinical skills. By teaching rational use of various laboratory techniques, one can shortlist the investigations to be ordered, thereby making it cost effective for the patients. This also encourages rapid and precise investigations, decreasing hospital stay and cost and lesser number of nosocomial infections. Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were as follows: (1) to develop a module for an interactive disease-based teaching session to impart practical knowledge to undergraduate medical students of the microbiological diagnostic techniques, (2) to evaluate the outcome of this intervention on students for better perception and understanding of clinical microbiology, and (3) to encourage implementation of this knowledge imparted to students later on for rapid and precise investigations, diagnosis, and cost-effective hospital stay in a clinical scenario. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Microbiology Department of Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. Forty-five 2nd-year professional students participated in the study. Topics were taught in the theory classes as usual followed by preproject assessment by multiple-choice questions (MCQs). The same topics were taught in the practical classes with special emphasis to diagnostic tests (which test when required). Students were again evaluated by the same set of MCQs as given for preproject assessment. Marks obtained by both teaching methods were analyzed statistically. Results: By postproject analysis MCQ test, it was seen that 22.2% of students scored marks in the range 80%–90% (preproject marks 4.44%). Majority of the students (66.6%) scored between 70% and 80% postproject while the students performing in this range preproject were 6.66% only. The postproject performance in the range 60%–70% and 60%/below 60% was seen among 6.66% and 4.44%, respectively. Paired t-test was used for comparison and was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Results of the current study appear to support continued use of the interactive disease-based session. While prospective research is needed to best assess the utility of the session, the current study does provide support for session benefits. This project is still going on in the department and students are taught clinical microbiology at the end of the syllabus.

Keywords

• Medical students
• disease
• microbiological diagnostic techniques