The Drudgery of a Doctor's Disciple: Exploring the effects of Negative Role Modelling on medical students' professional development.

INTRODUCTION: Role modelling is considered an essential component of teaching in various educational settings and impact students' professional development. Most studies found in the literature have explored the influence of positive role models and limited data is available about the negative role modelling. This study explores the effects of negative role modelling of teachers on the professional development of future doctors. METHODS: A qualitative exploratory study was done in three medical colleges of Lahore, Pakistan. Fifteen, telephonic, semi-structured interviews were done with fifth-year MBBS students. A thematic analysis was done through manual coding of transcribed interviews. RESULTS: A total of 374 codes were generated in the first cycle of coding, that was merged to 42 in the second cycle. These codes led to 4 subthemes that finally emerged as two themes. The first theme was "Students & patients: In the same boat" highlighting the damaging effects of negative role modelling. The second theme was "Taking the bad with the good" focusing on the ambivalent response of students towards the unprofessional behaviours of their role models. CONCLUSION: Negative role modelling exponentially affects the attitude and behaviour of medical students especially in informal settings and have detrimental effects on patient care. Students lose some degree of humanism while unconsciously observing the unethical behaviours, to become a part of hospital culture whereas some students show determination to channelize their resentment to reforms.

Biological Activities of In-House Developed Haloxylon griffithii Plant Extract Formulations.

The therapeutic potential of whitish glaucous sub-shrub Haloxylon griffithii (H. griffithii), abundantly present in southern regions of South Asia, has been neglected. The current study aimed to assess the phytochemicals and pharmacological potential of native and gemm forms of H. griffithii. Results of antimicrobial activity revealed that all tested bacteria were susceptible at concentrations ≤50 µg/mL, while tested fungal species were susceptible at ≤25 µg/mL. The values of minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) ranged between 10.75 ± 0.20 to 44.25 ± 0.42 µg/mL, 8.25 ± 0.02 to 28.20 ± 0.80 µg/mL. The value of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of all microbial species was ≤100 µg/mL and the antibiotic mechanism showed that both extracts were highly bactericidal and fungicidal. Results of average log reduction of viable cell count in time kill assay indicated that Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) NCTC 1662, Candida albicans (C. albicans) IBL-01, Candidakrusei (C. krusei) ATCC 6258, and Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) QC 6158 were the most susceptible microbial species. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based quantification confirmed the presence of gallic acid p.coumeric acid catechin, vanillin, ellagic acid, and salicylic acid, while in native extract only gallic acid. Native and gemm extracts exhibited excellent radical scavenging potential measured by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl radical scavenging assay. Significant thrombolytic activity was found in both extracts with negligible haemolytic activity. Highest percent (%) clot lysis was observed with gemm extracts (87.9 ± 0.85% clot lysis). In summary, we infer that valuable evidence congregated can be exploited for better understanding of gemm H. griffithii's health benefits, further, to increase its utility with enriching dietary sources of health-promoting compounds.

Production of commercially important enzymes from Bacillus licheniformis KIBGE-IB3 using date fruit wastes as substrate.

BACKGROUND: Pakistan is one of the top five date fruit-producing countries and produced more than 30% wastes in picking, packing, storage, and commercialization stages. The date fruit wastes are usually considered inedible for humans and only used for livestock feed. In current research, Bacillus licheniformis KIBGE-IB3 was screened for pectinase, xylanase, cellulase, and amylase production using date fruit wastes as substrate through solid state fermentation. RESULTS: The B. licheniformis KIBGE-IB3 produced higher concentration of pectinase using date fruit wastes as substrate as compared to amylase, cellulase, and xylanase. B. licheniformis KIBGE-IB3 produced maximum pectinase using 5.0 g/dl date fruit wastes and 0.5 g/dl yeast extract. B. licheniformis KIBGE-IB3 required pH 7.0, 37 °C incubation temperature, and 72 h incubation period for maximum production of pectinase. CONCLUSION: It has been concluded that date fruit waste is a good source of biomass and can be utilized for the commercial production of pectinase.