Research into the knowledge levels about the medical microbiology specialization among medical students

Background: According to our observation, despite students in medical school have taken medical microbiology course for at least one semester during their medical education, they could not have a clear knowledge about this field when they graduate and start to work in the clinics. In this study, we aimed to investigate the knowledge and awareness levels of the medical students about microbiology specialist and medical microbiology specialization field at two different medical schools in our city. Materials and Methods: A 16-item multiple-choice questionnaire was prepared in accordance with the relevant law to be applied to the students. The questionnaire was applied face to face to 1st, 2nd and 3rd semester students in 2018-2019 academic season with the permission of both universities. The students who participated in the questionnaire were asked about the definition of the medical microbiology specialist according to the relevant law, where theses specialists are primarily employed, their duties/authorizations, and which tests they are responsible for in the clinical laboratories. Results: A total of 507 medical students accepted to participate in the survey. Only 9 (2%) of the students answered the questionnaire about who the medical microbiology specialist is and what kind of training procedures they had for specialization. It was detected that 30% of the students gave wrong answer to this question and these students thought that a physician (medical doctor) cannot be specialist of medical microbiology. When we asked the students where the medical microbiology specialists are primarily employed, only 16 (3%) students gave exact correct answer to this question. Using another question, it was investigated whether the students actually know what the medical microbiology specialists do in the clinics. Here, 132 (26%) students answered this question correctly, but 18% of the students gave wrong answer and it was found that they did not even know that the task of the medical microbiology specialist is to diagnose infectious diseases. Conclusion: Our study showed that the knowledge and awareness of the medical students on medical microbiology specialization field were very limited. In conclusion, it may be considered to plan medical microbiology laboratory internship as a separate internship in the clinical phase of medical education to make students better understand the effective role of medical microbiology field in the diagnosis of infectious diseases.