[Status of the clinical laboratory in the mandatory postgraduate medical training system: from the medical technologists' view (2)].

When the new system of mandatory postgraduate medical training was introduced, we developed a new training program in our clinical laboratory. We will describe this training program in the microbiology laboratory and our experience. We have had 45 min practice of basic microbiology tests, including Gram staining and microscopic examination, for first-grade postgraduate doctors since 2004, and during this practice we emphasize the importance of quality in the clinical specimens collected for cultures and at the same time, explain how to read microbiological test results. Although we had prepared a kit for the Gram-staining procedure to be used any time they want, it was very disappointing that no doctors used this kit to diagnose an infectious disease. In 2005, four 2nd grade doctors selected the training course in our clinical laboratory for 2 months and 3 of them have finished. In the microbiological laboratory we were in charge of the program for 1 or 2 weeks, which includes the isolation and identification of bacterial pathogens from clinical samples and their susceptibility tests, and the isolation, identification and nucleic acid amplification test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All of these trainees acquired the basic knowledge and skills required for microbiological diagnosis. This activity gave us a great opportunity to understand what they do not know and what they want to know. We now have some useful suggestions to develop a good education system for medical microbiology for postgraduate doctors.