Frequency and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Gram-Negative Bacilli Isolated From Urine Specimens at a Tertiary Care Setting

OBJECTIVES: To find out the frequency and pattern of conventional antibiotic susceptibility of gram-negative bacilli cultured from urine specimens of patients at a tertiary care setting. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted at the Microbiology Department of Combined Military Hospital Multan from June 2016 to May 2017. The data in this retrospective descriptive study was collected from urine culture records of the Microbiology Department, CMH Multan. Only those urine specimens who revealed positive gram-negative bacilli cultures were included in the study. Drug susceptibility patterns of these isolates were recorded against routinely used antibiotics (e.g. Nitrofurantoin, Imipenem, Sulbactum-cefoperazone, Gentamicin and Ciprofloxacin) and evaluated accordingly. RESULTS: A total of 1703 urine specimens were submitted for culture and antibiotics susceptibility testing during the period of study. A total of 128 specimens showed growth of gram-negative rods. Imipenem (95% sensitivity), Sulbactam- Cefoperazone (88% sensitivity) and Nitrofurantoin (87% sensitivity) were highly effective antibiotics against the cultured gram-negative bacilli in the study. CONCLUSION: This study showed that E. coli is the commonest cause of urinary tract infection (UTIs), followed by Klebsiella and Enterobacter species among gram-negative bacilli in our set up. In-vitro efficacy of Imipenem, Sulbactam- Cefoperazone and Nitrofurantoin was found to be the highest against these gram-negative bacilli as compared to other antimicrobials. On the contrary, in-vitro efficacy of ciprofloxacin and gentamycin was found to be extremely low

Perceptions and comparison of bedside teaching among final year students of public and private medical colleges of Peshawar

Introduction: Bedside teaching is an important but declining strategy in medical education. The regulatory authority’s insistence on structure of an institute needs be supplemented with quality of bedside teaching. The objective of this study was to find perceptions and compare bedside teaching among students of public and private medical colleges of Peshawar. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at four medical colleges of Peshawar during the month of February 2020. A Likert scale tool with 30 items and four subscales; physical environment, patient’s comfort and student attitude, teaching session and teaching fellow was filled by 242 students. Mean score for each question and each subscale was calculated for each institute for perceptions. Mean score of two public and two private institutes for each subscale was compared by unpaired t-test. Results: Physical environment mean score was highest at Khyber Girls Medical College Peshawar (2.97±0.50). Patients’ comfort and students’ attitude mean score was approximately equal in four institutes. In teaching session, the highest mean score was reported by Khyber Girls Medical College and was lowest by Khyber Medical College. For teaching fellow, mean score was highest at Khyber Girls Medical College (3.70±0.67) and lowest at Kabir Medical College (2.85±0.55). For physical environment (public 2.87±0.48 vs. private 2.59±0.60) and teaching fellow scale (public 2.87±0.48 vs. private2.59±0.60) there was highly significant difference (p=0.0001). Conclusion: Mean score in four subscales are comparable in four institutes with some variation but there are significant differences between public and private institutes in physical environment and teaching fellow subscales. There are some consistencies and conflicts with regional and international literature. This needs in-depth qualitative exploration