Mukesh Patel, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and section chief of Infectious Diseases at the Birmingham VA Medical Center, is the course co-director for two undergraduate medical courses: Fundamentals Block 5 (Microbiology) and Pulmonary Medicine and the director of the longitudinal microbiology curriculum. As he prepares to begin microbiology modules for the first-year students, Patel answers questions on how he engages students and ways he makes fundamental concepts relevant and interesting.
Why did you decide to become a medical educator?
I have always enjoyed being in the role of an educator going back to when I was in college and was trying to help friends better understand something we learned in class and that they needed a little help with. I was never competitive with others when it comes to knowledge. I believe that sharing what you know to help others improve is far more important than trying to achieve more than your peers. Medical education can be the best example of that philosophy because, by learning, we all impact the health of our patients in a positive way.
Also, I realized a long time ago that I was learning a lot from the people I’m teaching as they asked questions and provided their own knowledge. It is a two-way street and being an educator means I get to learn lots of new stuff, too.
At the end of the day, I really enjoy working closely with people who want to learn. I give credit to the great educators I’ve had (both formal and informal educators) for helping me get to where I am, and I feel some responsibility in trying to pass along the knowledge.
How did you become a medical educator?
The answer to this question is a bit complicated and certainly not direct.
There isn’t a specific pathway that has ever really existed if a person decides they want to be engaged in medical education. It’s always been a part of what many people before me did. I recall some people from my time as a medical student were likely “voluntold” to teach, while others actively sought the role. You can imagine that the results are much better if the educator enjoys the role rather than feels it is an obligation they would rather not have.
As far as formal teaching at the medical school, I started teaching in microbiology labs when I was an infectious disease fellow. I was “voluntold” to do this but realized I enjoyed it and actually learned a ton of information along the way. There were topics that I thought I knew well, but then when faced with questions from students, realized I didn’t really know all that much. So, I had to become a student in order to be able to teach. And I really like that educators have to continue to learn just to keep up with the topics taught so that they can provide the best and most unambiguous answers.
I continued to teach as a fellow and as faculty wherever I have worked. It can be informal – bedside clinical rounds, discussions during clinical conferences – or it can be formal – lectures, updates to medical staff, conferences, and didactics for residents and fellows.
When I returned to UAB in 2017 for my second career here, I was formally given a role to oversee how clinical microbiology was taught in the pre-clinical years and try to align it better to what the students need to know for their required NBME exam as well as prepare them for their clinical rotations. Since that time, I’ve been fortunate in that I have been able to also become a Co-Director of two courses – Fundamentals Block 5 (“Microbiology”) and the Pulmonary organ module. I also was a Clinical Skills Scholar for several years, another role that I felt taught me just as much as I was able to teach.
How do you approach connecting and engaging with students?
First, I want to provide clear expectations. Students have different personalities, learning styles, and levels of anxiety. I think it’s important for people to know exactly what we will be learning over in a lecture or exercise, and so providing clear expectations is important. I also recognize that the nitty-gritty of microbiology can seem pretty boring and so I always try to add something to the discussion to make things more fun. It might be a relevant clinical story, or just a joke, or a silly slide – anything to break up the monotony.
I expect to see many of the students again during their time in medical school so as much as I can, I want students to be comfortable asking and answering questions when I’m teaching. I may be your attending on wards one day and I want you to remember that I want you to be comfortable with and enjoy learning when you work with me.
Mukesh Patel, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and section chief of Infectious Diseases at the Birmingham VA Medical Center, is the course co-director for two undergraduate medical courses: Fundamentals Block 5 (Microbiology) and Pulmonary Medicine and the director of the longitudinal microbiology curriculum. As he prepares to begin microbiology modules for the first-year students, Patel answers questions on how he engages students and ways he makes fundamental concepts relevant and interesting.
Why did you decide to become a medical educator?
I have always enjoyed being in the role of an educator going back to when I was in college and was trying to help friends better understand something we learned in class and that they needed a little help with. I was never competitive with others when it comes to knowledge. I believe that sharing what you know to help others improve is far more important than trying to achieve more than your peers. Medical education can be the best example of that philosophy because, by learning, we all impact the health of our patients in a positive way.
Also, I realized a long time ago that I was learning a lot from the people I’m teaching as they asked questions and provided their own knowledge. It is a two-way street and being an educator means I get to learn lots of new stuff, too.
At the end of the day, I really enjoy working closely with people who want to learn. I give credit to the great educators I’ve had (both formal and informal educators) for helping me get to where I am, and I feel some responsibility in trying to pass along the knowledge.
How did you become a medical educator?
The answer to this question is a bit complicated and certainly not direct.
There isn’t a specific pathway that has ever really existed if a person decides they want to be engaged in medical education. It’s always been a part of what many people before me did. I recall some people from my time as a medical student were likely “voluntold” to teach, while others actively sought the role. You can imagine that the results are much better if the educator enjoys the role rather than feels it is an obligation they would rather not have.
As far as formal teaching at the medical school, I started teaching in microbiology labs when I was an infectious disease fellow. I was “voluntold” to do this but realized I enjoyed it and actually learned a ton of information along the way. There were topics that I thought I knew well, but then when faced with questions from students, realized I didn’t really know all that much. So, I had to become a student in order to be able to teach. And I really like that educators have to continue to learn just to keep up with the topics taught so that they can provide the best and most unambiguous answers.
I continued to teach as a fellow and as faculty wherever I have worked. It can be informal – bedside clinical rounds, discussions during clinical conferences – or it can be formal – lectures, updates to medical staff, conferences, and didactics for residents and fellows.
When I returned to UAB in 2017 for my second career here, I was formally given a role to oversee how clinical microbiology was taught in the pre-clinical years and try to align it better to what the students need to know for their required NBME exam as well as prepare them for their clinical rotations. Since that time, I’ve been fortunate in that I have been able to also become a Co-Director of two courses – Fundamentals Block 5 (“Microbiology”) and the Pulmonary organ module. I also was a Clinical Skills Scholar for several years, another role that I felt taught me just as much as I was able to teach.
How do you approach connecting and engaging with students?
First, I want to provide clear expectations. Students have different personalities, learning styles, and levels of anxiety. I think it’s important for people to know exactly what we will be learning over in a lecture or exercise and so providing clear expectations is important. I also recognize that the nitty-gritty of microbiology can seem pretty boring and so I always try to add something to the discussion to make things more fun. It might be a relevant clinical story, or just a joke, or a silly slide – anything to break up the monotony.
I expect to see many of the students again during their time in medical school so as much as I can, I want students to be comfortable asking and answering questions when I’m teaching. I may be your attending on wards one day and I want you to remember that I want you to be comfortable with and enjoy learning when you work with me.
What resources/technology do you like to use?
I keep things pretty simple given that for the most part, we live in a world of PowerPoint-based lectures. As much as I love technology, I feel that most of it is an adjunct to standard teaching given that I’m teaching two hundred students and not everybody learns the same way or has an affinity for rapid change. That being said, I’m open to anything if it is easily accessible for students. We do use the Kaizen software platform during the microbiology course and the pulmonary course to a lesser degree to offer a gamification-based tool that runs in parallel to the standard curriculum. It has been very well-received in microbiology, and we will continue to tweak it to make it even better.
How do you prepare material? Do you have a certain process?
As much as I can with any topic, I try to make it have a logical flow or “story” in some sense. I love reading and watching movies and I consider the process of telling a story is the same whether it is for artistic reasons or teaching medicine. I try to keep in mind that the information has to connect with the learner, they have to see the relevance. And sometimes that requires carefully aligning the science details with the bigger clinical picture, and sometimes to also make it personal.
How do you help your students see the bigger picture of microbiology topics?
As a practicing clinician, it’s really easy to connect the dots between what they are learning and the application of that knowledge in the real world. As much as I can, I want the material they learn to fit into a broader clinical context. A lot of the patients our students will see in their training will have infections. They will have to make decisions about treatment that will have a direct relationship to the material they learned in their first year of medical school. This is not useless trivia that you are learning (well, not all of it); it can make a difference in the lives of your future patients.
What resources/technology do you like to use?
I keep things pretty simple given that for the most part, we live in a world of PowerPoint-based lectures. As much as I love technology, I feel that most of it is an adjunct to standard teaching given that I’m teaching two hundred students and not everybody learns the same way or has an affinity for rapid change. That being said, I’m open to anything if it is easily accessible for students. We do use the Kaizen software platform during the microbiology course and the pulmonary course to a lesser degree to offer a gamification-based tool that runs in parallel to the standard curriculum. It has been very well-received in microbiology, and we will continue to tweak it to make it even better.
How do you prepare material? Do you have a certain process?
As much as I can with any topic, I try to make it have a logical flow or “story” in some sense. I love reading and watching movies and I consider the process of telling a story is the same whether it is for artistic reasons or teaching medicine. I try to keep in mind that the information has to connect with the learner, they have to see the relevance. And sometimes that requires carefully aligning the science details with the bigger clinical picture, and sometimes to also make it personal.
How do you help your students see the bigger picture of microbiology topics?
As a practicing clinician, it’s really easy to connect the dots between what they are learning and the application of that knowledge in the real world. As much as I can, I want the material they learn to fit into a broader clinical context. A lot of the patients our students will see in their training will have infections. They will have to make decisions about treatment that will have a direct relationship to the material they learned in their first year of medical school. This is not useless trivia that you are learning (well, not all of it); it can make a difference in the lives of your future patients.