Famous Last Words: My other classes - Pathogenic Microbiology

Another class I’m taking this semester is pathogenic microbiology. It’s a class I’m required to take for my major, but it’s [thankfully] also been really interesting as well.

One of the best parts about this class is that I’m noticing all sorts of connections from the material in that class to things I’ve noticed or learned while working at the hospital as a scribe for the past year.

For instance, right now, we’re studying antibiotics, their mechanisms of actions, and the bacteria they are effective against. We’re also learning about which bacteria most commonly cause different diseases (ex: urinary tract infections). While I’ve worked at the hospital, we’ve had tons of people come in and get diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, or pneumonia, or step pharyngitis. I’ve noticed that the antibiotics prescribed differ, depending on the type of infection that it is, and I’ve also observed doctors asking each other questions like “so if someone has a penicillin allergy, is pregnant, and has a UTI, what antibiotic would you prescribe them? as well as “So this person has an area of cellulitis on their leg, and they tried [insert antibiotic here] and it didn’t help. What would you prescribe next or do they need to get admitted to receive IV antibiotics? and also “so this patient had urinalysis at [insert hospital here] and they prescribed him [insert antibiotic here] for a UTI. Have you ever heard of people with UTIs being treated with [that antibiotic]?”

Learning about these antibiotics has been really cool, because it’s an example of how sometimes what you learn in undergrad can actually help you in your future career. I know more about why certain antibiotics only work for some infections and why I’ve heard the doctors I work with ask the above mentioned questions.

Hopefully I’ll remember all this knowledge tomorrow, because I actually have a test over this stuff then!

Oooo aaaa, microbiology! [Source]