Trends in Teaching Laboratory Medicine in Microbiology to Undergraduate Medical Students: A Survey Study

The teaching laboratory has long been a component of medical microbiology courses. Limited data suggest that many medical schools have eliminated their teaching laboratory for diagnostic microbiology despite support for active learning over didactic lectures and a concern that undergraduate medical student’s education in the area of laboratory medicine is inadequate. A survey study of North American medical schools was conducted to determine if there is a trend towards decreasing or eliminating this teaching laboratory. The study also documented reasons for changes to this teaching laboratory, curricular content of existing microbiology teaching laboratories, and use of computer-assisted instruction. There was a 53 % response rate to the survey. Forty-three percent of medical schools decreased the hours or eliminated the teaching laboratory in diagnostic microbiology entirely between 2002 and 2012, and an additional 7 % of schools have plans to decrease hours or eliminate this teaching laboratory. Changes to the teaching laboratory were most often due to limited resources, reduced teaching hours, and overarching curricular changes. Because the way in which medical students are taught laboratory medicine in microbiology is undergoing a significant change, educators need to ensure that the learning experience is sufficient, and the quality is not compromised as a result.