Notes on classes.

I know I’ve haven’t written in a while. That’s because I haven’t really had the time to sit and reflect. But here we go:

I did pretty well on my lab practical for microbiology. :) I have my first lecture exam for the class next week. There’s a lot of information to digest but as the case was with anatomy, I really enjoy learning microbiology. Bacteria and viruses are really strange. And so many diseases are caused by these microscopic little buggers that we can’t even see! We’re also learning various staining techniques to differentiate among bacteria. Some bacteria are more virulent than others. For instance, the Gram stain divides bacteria into Gram-positives (those with a thick cell wall) and Gram-negatives (those with a thin, disorganized cell wall but a lipopolysaccharide outer membrane). With regards to pathology, Gram-negatives are the ones we’ve gotta watch out for. Penicillin interferes with cell wall synthesis and is effective against bacteria that have rely on their cell walls for protection (i.e., Gram-positives). Conversely, Gram-negatives don’t really care about their cell walls anyway since they’ve got their neat lipid outer membrane. Thus, penicillin (as well as many other antimicrobial drugs) are ineffective against Gram-negatives. Examples of Gram-negative bacteria? E. coli. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Neisseria meningitidis (the destructive guy that cause meningitis).

Anyways, microbiology is also relevant to epidemiology. One of the (many) nursing careers that I’m interested in is nurse epidemiologist. Nurse epidemiologists often work for government entities like the Center for Disease Control (my political science background would help here). I also plan on getting a MPH after my MSN.  I’m also really interested in neonatal, OB-GYN, and peds. But for a less conventional nursing field, I’m looking to epidemiology.

My physiology class isn’t as interesting but I do have occasional ah-hah! moments. I think it’s because most of the stuff we’re learning is review of physics and chemistry. But we’re entering the body systems soon (next week maybe!). I can’t wait to study the heart and blood and lymphatics again. Pretty. Awesome. Stuff.