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I asked the same question a few months ago, and ended up getting converted to the field. 🙂

I found the Michigan Manual very, very helpful. Once I decided I was going for plastics I bought Secrets (which I've been reading through slowly-- it's much more in depth). The UTSW book also looks great; I flipped through it but it was a bit pricey. In case you need to give presentations I recommend checking out the recent copy of Grabb & Smith from your library for the month, so you can plumb the depths of a topic more quickly.

I'm sure the PRS residents on the board will know of other books, but the aforementioned ones really helped me out when I was on my sub-i and still planning on applying in gen surg.
 
Blond had good suggestions. I would also strongly recommend reading for your cases. If you are doing a flap the next day I would strongly recommend that you go to the library and read the relavant chapter in Mathes and Nahai reconstructive surgery. They are short, quick, and to the point. They also have references to the original articles. It might also be worth skimming the original articles. If you really wanted to go all out you could look into some alternative flaps for whatever body part you are going to flap. Mathes and Nahai is a great resource for that purpose. For head and neck stuff I would recommend looking real quick at Ian (spelling?) Jackson's book called something like local flaps for head and neck reconstruction. He has a new edition out that I have been meaning to buy. For your cosmetic cases I would recommend that big bad Aesthetic Surgery book by Nahai. It is extremely readable and covers the topic in sufficient depth. Again the articles referenced at the end of the chapter are priceless.

If you are doing surgery that isn't covered in a text (very often the case), I would recommend doing a quick literature search and seeing how others have handled the problem. If you do all of those things you are demonstrating that you have curiousity and a little bit of what it takes to be a good resident.
 
I love Nahai's Aesthetic books. They've got such nice pictures and actually tell you how to do it. I also like the new Grabb's Flap Encyclopedia. Again, it tells you how to raise many of the common flaps. The pictures aren't as good, but the descriptions are excellent. Mathes and Nahai is a must-have for a PRS resident.
 
Oooh. I haven't seen the new Grabb flap atlas. I'll have to check it out. Mathes and Nahai reconstructive is pretty bombass though.
 
smg42 said:
Hello-
4th year med-student here- starting my plastics elective tomorrow!

Any other advice/info appreciated.
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You need to know everything about everyone of your patients. You need to smile. You need to be available to do whatever is needed to do and do it gladly and with enthusiasm (but not too much, nobody likes a complete suck-up). You need to not annoy anyone, especially the residents. You need to do everything that has been previously suggested. In short, you need to be the best medical student they have ever had rotate on their service.

Cheers.
 
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