The microbiologist diagnoses, advises on the treatment of and controls the spread of infection, for example, bacteria, viruses and fungi, both in the hospital and the community setting. It is a microbiologist who will be at the heart of the investigation of any infection outbreak, immunisation campaign or advice on judicious use of antibiotics.
What’s it like?
Forget the picture of the reclusive microbiologist, holed up in his lab all day peering down a microscope. Microbiology is both a clinical and scientific specialty, combining the medical skills of history, examination and clinical reasoning with the scientific processes involved in laboratory investigation and diagnosis.
How do we go about doing this? A typical day might start by joining a multidisciplinary team ward round, for example, on ITU. As microbiologists we are valued members of many teams where infections are common and may be life threatening. It’s then off to the lab to find out this morning’s positive culture results, and then spend time reviewing patients we are concerned about on the wards and discussing their management plans with their teams. Every ward in the hospital requires input from us at some point, making for very interesting case mixes from different specialties. It’s also as important to us to prevent infection as to treat it, and we work closely with the Infection Prevention and Control teams and visit any areas with problems to give advice.
Microbiology is a great specialty if you enjoy teaching. It’s often a subject people lack confidence in and because infection affects all disciplines, people are always eager to learn more. It’s also a great area in which to conduct research and audit, as the bugs are quick to outsmart us and there are always rapid developments, especially in drug development, to keep track of.
Contrary to popular belief, infection doesn’t only occur between 9 and 5 and we do provide a 24-hour service for both microbiology and infection prevention and control advice. We are largely able to provide this from home however, so the out of hours commitment is not onerous. Training is varied, interesting and fun. I’ve never looked back!
Dr Ali Hames, SpR
