Electronic News Letter from Travancore Medical College Kollam, Kerala, India

Teaching / Learning Medical Microbiology

*Dr.T.V.Rao MD

India is going through a rapid phase of Development in Medical and Nursing education. Education in Medical microbiology is certainly in crisis, there are many question than answers to the existing problems as in Medical Education. India like several developing countries, there is higher morbidity and mortality associated with Infectious diseases, improvements in teaching and training in Medical Microbiology makes the way better for practice of Infectious diseases. At present Microbiology is being squeezed out of traditional curricula, resulting in young doctors not being aware of the possibilities of a career or practice of knowledge in infectious diseases. In spite of the importance in prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, young medical students rarely realise, teachers to contribute too neglect of microbiology in the medical curriculum and related issues associated with the recently introduced problem based learning (PBL). In some medical Colleges, students exposure to microbiology and infection is minimal and experience with PBL has been mixed. However, education functions in the present and faces problems that must be resolved now, in order to achieve the future benefit. The true measure of education, then, is the success of student learning, which is served by good teaching. Understanding too that if we have taught well, then student learning will continue lifelong.

As the American philosopher, Eric Hoffer, said The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. It is time of privatization of education that we cannot expect a merited people as our students, and do not forget our teachers too are not

Genius people. May teachers take up the non-clinical subjects as alternative option rather than interest? The process of change should not deprive the Nation of talented Doctors. I feel that we teachers have a great role to contribute than blaming the system. However, compared to the collegiality of research, teaching has often been done in isolation. Apart from the lost opportunity of effective integration within courses, this has meant that teaching practices have been less likely to be rationally reviewed against the effectiveness of their learning outcomes. Even good teachers may not be able to explain why and how students learnt in their course. As learning can be defined as the transfer of new knowledge from short-term, limited capacity, working memory to long-term memory. Failure to do so mean that knowledge retention will be poor. Another challenge to teaching Medicine is the changing nature of society. We are faced with ever more complex conundrums that require an educated populace to make ever more complex decisions. Thus, it is vital that our students graduate with a sound understanding of their disciplines, in order that they will be able to participate rationally in such decisions. It is not feasible that we can teach all that students need to know, but must instead teach them how to continue learning within the discipline be familiar how does a professional microbiologist think. All of this underlines the importance of teaching students not only what to know within microbiology, but also how to think as a professional Doctor who has a role to save so many lives in future. In many medical colleges, students exposure to microbiology and infection is minimal and experience with PBL has been doubtful. Rarely any Medical student given an option does not wish to become a Microbiologist indicating that we teachers failed to create interest in our own speciality. The microbial world is vast and unfamiliar to students even many topics to our own senior teachers. Moreover, the intersection between the practice of medicine and this unseen world is constantly expanding and shifting. Even with conventional teaching, students need time to familiarize themselves with the different names and concepts in infection. I feel that simple measures to make the student to understand why a particular infection is important to our patients, what are available resources in

diagnosis few efforts, how we can reduce the suffering of cohumans with poor economic resources. India is poor in spite many rich Doctors let little efforts to understand poverty and disease can make us better teachers and above all a Good human beings. Today practice of Medicine is both Rich and Poor, and majority are poor think to teach and practice problem solving Medicine.
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