Instructions for Clinical Microbiology Rotation

In this document... Course Materials Exams Student Checklists Clinical Professional Development Microbiology Project Practical Exam Unknowns

Course Materials

This is a UNM on-line course. Only registered UNM students can log in to the course.

All materials will be submitted using the course software WebCT by the END of EACH rotation.  The address for the WebCT courses is http://vista.unm.edu.  The student must log into the course.. 

Course Timeline

The course materials consist of 2 exams, clinical performance evaluations (student checklists), clinical professional development evaluation, microbiology project and a practical exam completed with unknown reports and worksheets. Click here to view the course syllabus and the course objectives. Please contact Jack Granato (jgranato@salud.unm.edu) at the Health Sciences Center Library at 925-4169 with any technical questions.

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Exams: Requires password from Clinical Tech: The MLS instructor will email the password to the appropriate clinical instructor when students begin their rotations.

Exam #1 should be given in week 3. Exam #2 should be given in week 5. These exams can be found in the WebCT course from the Exam I and Exam II links on the Homepage.  Please make sure that you do not share this password with anyone.  The student will be able to look at their results in WebCT immediately after they submit the exams. Click here to view the information covered in each exam.

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Student Checklist: Requires password from Clinical Tech. Please do not share password with student.

The Clinical Tech is required to fill out a series of checklists by the end of the student rotation in each area. These checklists can be found in the WebCT course from the Checklists/Evaluations link on the Homepage. The bench tech(s) can answer a few questions at a time and "Save" the answer before exiting. Please make sure that you do not share this password with the student. Please view the course timeline to determine when the checklists should be submitted.

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Clinical Professional Development Evaluation: Requires password from Clinical Tech. Please do not share password with student.

The preceptor should sit down with the student at week 3 and review the professional evaluation and verbally identify any problem areas so student can work on behavior, attitudes, etc. and correct and deficiencies.  The student can find and print an example of the Clinical Professional Development Evaluation form in the WebCT course under Course Information / Clinical Profession Development Evaluation Instructions.  At week 5, the preceptor should fill out the evaluation in the WebCT course with the student and submit it. The Clinical Professional Development Evaluation can be found in the WebCT course from the from the Checklists/Evaluations link on the Homepage. 

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Microbiology Project

The student is required to work on a microbiology project during the rotation. The project can be anything from kit evaluations to a report on a specific organism, case study or something on QA/QC. The student is required to prepare a summary of the project to submit by the end of the course. The student must download the required report form from WebCT, create the report, and upload the finished report back into the WebCT course.

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Clinical Microbiology Practical Examination

The student should be given specimens spiked with specific organisms. The student is completely on their own in how they set up the specimen and identify any possible pathogens. No assistance should be given to the student with these unknowns. An O&P specimen is provided by MLS program. This practical can be given over the course of the last 2 weeks of rotation or throughout the course depending on each clinical site's work flow.

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Directives for Unknowns

Previously worked-up slides and cultures may be given to the student as their unknown set.  Or you may want to spike specimens according to the following instructions.

• Direct Smears
  Select 1 sputum and 1 other smear (wound, fld, etc) for student evaluation. The student must download the report forms from WebCT.
   
• Interpretation and Culture Workup
  
  Blood Culture - Obtain 1 set of negative blood culture bottles that are to be thrown out. Remove patient ID and spike with a solution of any one of the following organisms:
  • Stash. aureus
  • Gp. B Beta Hemolytic Step.
  • Streptococcus pneumoniae
  • Enterococcus faecalis
  • Hemophilus influenzae
  • E. coli
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa
  • Candida albicans
  • Salmonella species

Sputum - Obtain a sputum specimen. Use only a small portion of the Sputum specimen for each student. Boost normal flora, if needed, by swabbing your throat, put swab into 1 ml. of a good nutrient broth (BHI, Todd Hewitt, etc.), incubate 2 - 4 hrs. Add 5 drops of broth to sputum specimen. Spike sputum specimen with 5 drops of McFarland density solutions of any one of the following organisms:

Vortex the specimen before giving to the Student

In lieu of real sputum specimen, you may use the normal flora solution in nutrient broth.

• Gp. A Beta Hemolytic Strep.- McF #1
• Staph. aureus - McF #0.5
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa - McF #0.5
• Pseudomonas cepacia - McF #0.5
• Hemophilus influenzae - McF #4
• Candida albicans - McF #0.5
• Moraxella catarrhalis - McF #0.5
• Streptococcus pneumoniae - McF #10
• Klebsiella pneumoniae - McF #0.5

Stool Specimen - Use a small portion of a stool specimen (peanut size). Make a suspension to a McFarland #0.5 of any of the following organisms, add 5 drops to the stool specimen and mix.

• Salmonella species
• Shigella species
• Campylobacter jejuni

Urine Specimen - Aliquot 5 ml of urine (or a nutrient broth) into a sterile container. Make a McFarland #2 suspension of any one of the following organisms. Add 20 microliters of the organism suspension to the urine. This should yield about 4 x 10⁵ bacteria/ml. Mix.

• Enterobacteriaceae species
• Staph. aureus
• Staph. saprophyticus
• Enterococcus species
• Candida albicans
• Yeast not Candida albicans
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Acinetobacter species

Body Fluid Specimen - Dispense 1 - 5 ml. sterile saline or broth to a sterile tube. Make a McFarland #0.5 suspension of any one of the organisms and add one drop to the fluid specimen.

• Hemophilus influenzae
• Gp. B Beta Hemolytic Strep.
• Listeria monocytogenes
• Neisseria gonorrhoeae
• Strep. pneumoniae
• Staph. aureus
• Candida albicans
• Cryptococcus neoformans

Anaerobe Specimen - To an Anaerobe liquid media add a mixture of one Anaerobe and one aerobic organism.

• Bacteroides fragilis
• Clostridium perfringens
• Peptostreptococcus species
• Fusobacterium species
• Propionobacter acnes

Parasitology Specimen - MLS will provide 1 unknown parasitology specimen for each student for an unknown.

Mycology Specimen - please provide plates with a common mold or yeast for identification.

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