Microbiology is devoted to the culturing, examination, and identification of

microorganisms that may be causing disease (pathogens) to humans including bacteria, fungi,
yeasts, etc. This section also provides information regarding appropriate antibiotics to use as
treatment for various pathogens. On my third clinical rotation, I was assigned to the
Microbiology section of the GCGMMC Pathology department. In this section, I had the
opportunity to perform and process different specimens for culture with different and certain
standard protocols to follow for receiving, preservation, transportation, handling, and processing.
Culture is the process of growing microorganisms by taking bacteria from the infection site by
some means of specimen collection and growing them in the artificial environment in the
laboratory. Once grown, most bacterial populations are easily observed without microscopy and
are present in sufficient quantities to allow identification & characterization to be performed. As
a mere intern who will be rotated here in this section, I felt privileged to have had the
opportunity to spend my internship and experience working in one of the accredited teaching and
training institutions by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
Endorsed with many things to do, on my first day, I had to time-in earlier than the
supposed duty time due to the preparations I needed to accomplish before the staff arrived at
eight in the morning. Proceeding to the daily intern activities proper, these include disinfecting
the working areas, preparing clean agar plates, arranging cultured media, disinfecting and
cleaning the biosafety cabinet, replacing cleaning solutions, logging and processing specimens,
as well as recording and releasing of test results. In processing specimens, the first essential step
I always had to do as an intern was to assure the logging of specimens upon receiving in the
different assigned logbooks as everything must be recorded here in this section. Many factors are
also to be considered first before receiving such as the date and time of collection, the type of
specimen, the requesting physician, patient information, date, and time of receiving. All of these
things are very crucial when there is a need to trace in times of specimen rejections or
discrepancies in the work-ups. After logging, I proceed to prepare the culture media to use and
number them as well as the specimen containers. There follows the streaking of agar plates and
enriching in broths, in certain specimens. On my first day, I had to learn different streaking
techniques of the varying specimens as well as the culture media to be used and their specific
temperatures for incubation which was too much information “TMI” to take in in just one sitting.
Moreover, in processing blood culture bottles, I first logged them and fed them one by one to the
BacT/Alert machine. We were also taught how to perform automated manual gram staining.
Overall, my first day on the Microbiology section was very much challenging. Fear and
anxiety of not being able to perform well is always evident every time I am tasked to perform
streaking, however, I’ve gathered all the courage I could get to be able to experience this clinical
rotation fully. Moreover, the number of plates we have to arrange was also a challenge, as we
have to also be careful in handling it, as infectious microorganisms are grown in these medias.
Even so, it was also fascinating looking at the bacterial growth on agars. I am definitely looking
forward for the coming days of clinical internship as I continuously immerse and enrich myself
with the experience, knowledge, and skills this section and the medical technologists could
definitely provide me.