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If you were to ask this question to a certain lecturer at our university, she would almost certainly say that it is the most important subject. Because without a fundamental knowledge of microbiology, you would not be a good doctor later on. On the other hand, all lecturers claim this about their own subject. I cannot yet judge how important microbiology is in the hospital (perhaps I will write an update on this one day), but I can tell you what the situation is like with this subject at our university.
Position in studies
First of all, in general. Microbiology starts in the third semester. At the beginning, it's about general things like the staining of organelles or structures and general biochemical properties of various microorganisms. Personally, I didn't find that particularly exciting yet, also because you don't get too involved with the subject yet, as the focus in that semester is mainly on other subjects that are very time-consuming. In the following semester, the focus is on "special microbiology". Here you learn all the genera, subdivisions and commonalities of microorganisms as well as their disease patterns. Which is by far more exciting than all the general stuff before.
Real Life "Grey's Anatomy"
I have to admit that I really enjoyed learning this subject. On the one hand, because it is the first subject where you can combine anamnesis, symptomatology and diagnostics. I was also able to answer a question from "Grey's Anatomy" that Doctor Webber (the head doctor in the series) asked his residents. So if that's not convincing that the subject is important, I don't know what is. The question was what the technical term for parasites in the head was (neurocysticercosis) and the residents in the series didn't know, by the way. Maybe I'm so enthusiastic about this subject because I enjoyed learning about it so much. Now I want to pass on a personal tip for learning. I've talked before about "Sketchy", a website that creates videos from various medical topics to help you memorise the material. I can only recommend it to you. Whether you study here in Bratislava or in Austria/Germany, it's the best tool for learning microbiology, and don't forget.
Microbiology in everyday life
Now to the question of whether it is important. Here I can only speak of my personal opinion, as I am sure some will disagree with me. But the pandemic alone has shown us all how important microbiology is. It is also useful in the daily work of a doctor. For example, if a patient comes into hospital with a strange rash that is pinkish, mainly on the abdomen and with pea-coloured diarrhoea, I will think of Salmonella typhi and Typhoid Mary. Sure, rarely will people come up with Naegleria Fowleri (A parasite of the CNS that you can catch in warm waters), but still, it's not bad to have heard of it before. Because who knows, maybe you will come across it.
Is our lecturer right in her opinion? Partly, no one will remember all the microorganisms perfectly, but just having learned and heard everything can be a help later in hospital. Or in private life, cough cough chlamydia.
In summary, I can say that there is a lot of emphasis on microbiology at our university, which I don't think is bad at all.
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