What should be in a Microbiology course?

FullGlass, BSN, MSN, NP · Jan 8

The cell structure is very important, as it is important to understand basic cell structure as foundation knowledge in healthcare. For example, the type of cell wall/membrane (gram pos or neg) determines what type of antibiotic is most effective.

Understanding DNA and RNA is important for understanding many diseases.

Understanding cell metabolism is important as well.

Personally, I found most of the labs tedious, but it is good experience for learning aseptic technique, which is extremely important for nurses and healthcare providers. For those interested in progressing to nurse practitioner or physician, microscopy is also important. Some medical practices do on-the-spot microscopy to determine what kind of organism is troubling a patient, as in genital exams for STDs.

Frankly, in my experience, most Microbiology professors are terrible. I had to retake the class 2x because of bad professors at community colleges. They made the class incredibly and needlessly hard - asking questions on exams that were not covered in lecture or in the text, asking very obscure questions, and so forth. I finally had a good professor at UCLA Extension and got an "A" and most importantly, actually understood the material because he was a good instructor. He also put effort into understanding what pre nursing and pre med students need to know, as opposed to teaching as if the students were all going to get a PhD in Microbiology

Good luck

ProfJosh · Jan 8

I don't have much control over the labs. For prep reasons, those kind of all have to be the same.

I want the class to be hard, but not needlessly hard. Needfully hard, but fair and testing you on things you will actually use. I want to focus more on things line virulence, epidemiology, and antimicrobial drugs. Talk more about how bacteria and viruses cause specific symptoms and why we use this drug to treat that disease and how impairing the immune system in this way will make you susceptible to that sort of disease. But if I spend more time going into detail on that, the time has to come from somewhere.