The Emerging Microbe Project: Developing Clinical Care Plans Based on Pathogen Identification and Clinical Case Studies

For many students in the health sciences, including doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students, basic and clinical sciences often appear detached from each other. In the infectious disease field, PharmD students additionally struggle with mastering the diversity of microorganisms and the corresponding the...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lauren A. O’Donnell, Michael W. Perry, Dane’t R. Doup
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/4b4ec6ea527f4d5a8617041bb3af4fb4
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:For many students in the health sciences, including doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students, basic and clinical sciences often appear detached from each other. In the infectious disease field, PharmD students additionally struggle with mastering the diversity of microorganisms and the corresponding therapies. The objective of this study was to design an interdisciplinary project that integrates fundamental microbiology with clinical research and decision-making skills. The Emerging Microbe Project guided students through the identification of a microorganism via genetic sequence analysis. The unknown microbe provided the basis for a patient case that asked the student to design a therapeutic treatment strategy for an infected patient. Outside of lecture, students had two weeks to identify the pathogen using nucleotide sequences, compose a microbiology report on the pathogen, and recommend an appropriate therapeutic treatment plan for the corresponding clinical case. We hypothesized that the students would develop a better understanding of the interplay between basic microbiology and infectious disease clinical practice, and that they would gain confidence and skill in independently selecting appropriate antimicrobial therapies for a new disease state. The exercise was conducted with PharmD students in their second professional year of pharmacy school in a required infectious disease course. Here, we demonstrate that the Emerging Microbe Project significantly improved student learning through two assessment strategies (assignment grades and exam questions), and increased student confidence in clinical infectious disease practice. This exercise could be modified for other health sciences students or undergraduates depending upon the level of clinical focus required of the course.