Microbiology Case study

 

BIOL 2420 CASE STUDY PROJECT: Fall 2020

 

For this project, you will be to choose an organism and write a case study scenario using that organism to show how it can cause disease, complications, and how it is treated (as well as other requirements contained in the rubric). You will be researching the organism, creating the case study and turning it in as a powerpoint presentation. This will be uploaded to Canvas. The information and rubric provided below will provide all the information you need to create a great case study.

 

Since this will be done entirely online, you will be doing an anonymous peer review/ranking on each presentation that will become a part of the grade for each project. Completing a thoughtful and very short review/ranking on each presentation will become a part of your grade (as reviewer) and a part of the final grade on the project (as reviewee). I will be providing a review document that will allow you to rank each presentation on how well the project met the criteria of the assignment as well as how engaging it is.

 

ORGANIZATION and GETTING STARTED

 

Case studies are a great tool for the development of critical thinking skills that you will need as you become health care professionals (or really any profession). Writing an original case study will allow you to use your knowledge of microbiology to integrate presenting symptoms, diagnostic test results, epidemiological considerations and other information such as virulence factors, antibiotic mechanisms, and antibiotic resistance to determine the etiology of infection and determine a course of treatment.

 

You will write a case study  scenario over your chosen organism individually or in groups of two. Your case study must include a clinical scenario about a disease caused by your organism, showing your knowledge of the organism and its mechanisms of infection, virulence factors, etc. The rubric below lists all of the topics that must be covered in your case study. The scenario should NOT be something published on the internet already. It should be your original work that meets the requirements for the assignment. Some students have asked me if they can write their case study about something that happened to them or someone that they know. This is permissible but you will likely have to embellish it to meet the requirements for the project.

 

In your scenario, you will not be required to write about each and every way the disease manifests, but you need to choose a scenario that will allow you to work in all the required elements.

 

Sometimes, it is hard to cover certain topics in a doctor/nurse/patient scenario, such as PCR, or virulence factors, which are topics you would not normally discuss with patients. To allow you to incorporate that type of information in your scenario, you will also include 5 questions and answers about the case study scenario (letting you go outside of the scenario to ask questions like, “why did the doctor choose this treatment over another?” or “what known virulence factor for this organism could be causing the patient’s symptoms?”

 

The 5 questions should be well thought out questions and must include complete answers. I am looking for questions that fill in the blanks and flesh out your story. You might even choose to address some of the social or cultural aspects of the disease or experimental treatments or vaccines depending on your topic. These questions should not be simple fact-based questions that can be answered in just a few words or with a list. When asking and answering the questions you are showing me (and your other reviewers) how much you know about the topic. You can also use the questions to bring up topics your scenario does not cover (ie, if your organism can cause different signs/symptoms in other cases, or different virulence factors, etc). Your questions must be thought provoking and your answers must be thorough to get full credit for this portion of the project.

 

FORMATTING (10 points)

Powerpoint presentation (with no less than 9 and no more than                                              1 point

10 individual slides, outside of your citations)

Meaningful visual aids* on each powerpoint slide                                                          4 points

*You may use clip art to create an engaging presentation but it will not count

toward this requirement

Organized/neat/clean/PROFESSIONAL                                                                                  3 points

Keep in mind that sometimes less is more. An excellent presentation should

be clear and easy to read while meeting every requirement

Correct grammar, format, spelling, punctuation                                                                               2 points

Correct formatting for organism names

 

TOPIC CONTENT (65 points)

Appropriate clinical scenario for your organism                                                                                10 points                                                             1 slide per each topic below:

1. Title page                 5 points
2. Presenting signs and symptoms 5 points
3. Route of transmission 5 points
4. Diagnosis                 5 points
5. Treatment                 5 points
6. Complications 5 points
7. Vaccine and/or preventative measures 5 points

8-9. Explanation of least 2 virulence factors explained (toxins,                 10 points

adhesins, drug resistance, etc)

10. Wrap-up free to add anything else you want that is interesting 5 points

and not covered in the scenario topics above

11. Works-cited slide 5 points

Thought provoking questions, not simple recall Use questions to bring up important topics not in the

scenario. I expect substantial answers (at least 1 paragraph); this is an important part of the project!

 

PEER REVIEW (15 points)

                You will upload your file of your rankings for each                                                          5 points

presentation (except your own); no one will see these except

for me. A peer review document will be posted in the case study module

You will review your own project as well. A self-review instrument will                              10 points

be posted in the case study module

 

CITATION OF SOURCES (10 points)

Uses at least 5 scholarly sources               with at least 2 peer reviewed journal articles   5 points

Journal article, reputable health care website such as Mayo Clinic, or a foundation for

the disease with cited sources. NCBI is a good start but it is a search engine not a source.

Do not cite NCBI results. Click through to actual articles and do not cite a source where

you cannot access the full text of the article. No citations from Wikipedia.

All sources cited correctly using APA style

Citation page on last slide in APA style                                                                   2 points

                                APA in-text citations in individual slides                                                                 2 points

                                Citations on visual aids/graphics (unless you created them                          1 points

                                yourself, they must be cited as well)                                                                         —————

100 points

 

 

 

SOURCES

 

Good starting points for your project are our class powerpoints and your textbook.  Your book will have more extensive coverage of the organism than I can cover in class. Another good starting point for lots of appropriate information is the Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov). You may also want to look at other public health sites at the county, state, and world level.

 

A good place to start looking for journal articles is: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/  There are many different links to explore on this site but remember it too is only an aggregation of information. Each particular page/resource you use should be properly cited within and you should use those citations for your project, not the website in general. It is not acceptable to cite the NCBI search result/abstract as your source. You must go forward from there and get to the original research paper and cite that. If you cannot get the full text of the article you should not cite it. Never cite a source you can’t read for yourself.

 

Finally, sometimes asking Google and Google Images is a really good strategy to get what you want. You may want to start there and find diagrams and graphics and then start to develop information around them, always making sure that the source of information is reliable and cited properly. You can get lost in Google so you have to learn to move on if it does not seem easily understandable. Be careful and skeptical most of the time on sources.

 

You should not use a magazine or newspaper such as New York Times or USA Today as a source. They are only reporting the information, not the scientists who did the work. If they are a reputable source they will often give enough information for you to find the scientist who wrote the paper and the scientific source. Most researchers these days have a webpage where you can access their publications (especially if you have a hard time accessing them on the open internet).

 

You should not use doctor/clinic webpages as a source, as anyone can make a webpage. If they are a good doctor they will have cited their sources as well. It is OK to use a reputable medical information webpage like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, WebMD, UpToDate and the like. If you are unsure if it is OK, ask me first.

 

Wikipedia should never be cited as a primary source. However, a good Wikipedia page should have properly cited sources that you can access by clicking on the footnote or at the end of the article. These may or may not be acceptable sources, but you can use your judgment from there.

 

Finally, I want you to look back at the rubric and see the importance I have placed on citing sources correctly using APA style. I can’t tell you how many times a good project has gotten an average grade because of mistakes here. Be particular about the citations and ask for help from me or the writing center on how to cite sources.

 

For more help with APA style visit the following links:

 

http://www.easybib.com
http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/index.php			make sure you check APA, not MLA!
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
http://www.apastyle.org/

 

It is also important to remember that your sources should be cited in APA style. You should cite every source you use. If you use my powerpoint, if I have not put a link to an external source, you should cite the book, not me.

 

In addition to having a works cited page, within the text of your case study you should be including in-text citations. For example, if you list a bunch of signs and symptoms you get from the powerpoint or textbook, the in-text citation should be with your list (author, year) and the full citation should be on your works cited page on the back.

 

Unless you have created the visual aids/graphics yourself, these also need an in-text citation with the graphic in the slide and a full citation on your works cited page. According to APA style, you should have all citations listed in alphabetical order, whether it is for the text or the graphics (ie, don’t make separate lists).