Best Pocket Refrence

[BelieveTheHype]

Hey guys. Deciding on investing in a pocket book, and would love some advice from my colleagues here that already have invested in one. Would love to hear some quick pros and cons about the one you have. Any advice and tips would be great too. Please remember to vote on the poll! I am leaning towards either the Ferri's or Pocket Medicine. Hopefully this would be a master thread where any new fish in the pond looking to purchase one can refer to and help in their purchase. Thanks a lot.

1. Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Medici...9059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318235840&sr=8-1)
   
2. The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics (http://www.amazon.com/Washington-Manual-Medical-Therapeutics-33rd/dp/1608310035/ref=pd_sim_b7)
   
3. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbo...2172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318236164&sr=8-1)
   
4. Ferri's Practical Guide to the Care of the Medical Patient (http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Gui...1589/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1318236244&sr=8-4)
   
5. Clinician's Pocket Reference (Scut Monkey) (http://www.amazon.com/Clinicians-Po...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318236663&sr=1-1)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Valadi]

saint-frances guide. its solid and easy to learn from.

 

[BelieveTheHype]

Come on guys, we need some more posts/feedback detailing the pros/cons from each of your experiences with your respective pocketbooks. This way, we can have a thread where future students in the same dilemma who can refer to and help make their purchase much easier. Thanks for understanding and looking forward to your input!

 

[Rollo]

I've only used Pocket Medicine and I like it so far because it is very, very detailed with diagnostics, management, and treatment options. It is definitely a "resident" level pocket book in that it won't go into pathophysiology or mechanisms behind pathologies or treatment options.

But if you paid attention and mastered the material from your first 2 years well, then you should have no trouble figuring out about 80% of what is in the book.

I just like having it because I can sit there and read about something and work my way through the guidelines in there from the knowledge I gained in pre-clinical years. It becomes more of an active reading instead of sitting there and passively reading a book that explains EVERYTHING to you.

 

[MossPoh]

I got all these little pocket reference books and I find myself just using a combination of pepid, epocrates and medscape for a majority of the things. It is usually faster and can link through information faster...and updates.

The little pocket reference I have is Medical Student's Pocket Reference by Ken Bookstein. It has a frightening amount of information jammed into the book on about everything imaginable. The biggest problem with it is that the font is very small and not especially dark on that real thin paper. Not impossible by any means, but not that great either. I think it runs like 9 to 12 bucks and could probably fit in your front pocket of scrubs or a white coat.

 

[dnt4gett]

my choice is washington manual.

 

[sineapse]

Oxford Handbook is an excellent guide and does a decent job for a pocketbook explaining the background to an illness. However, it does have a British slant and will have different units and drug names. Decent for revision purposes, like a baby Harrison's.

Pocket Medicine seems to be what everyone is carrying here. It is excellent for telling you what to do, but it is packed with very small print and doesn't explain the disease process etc. Good for management decisions, quickly.

 

[penguinophile]

Pocket medicine was best by far for my M3 medicine wards, my sub I and my internship. My co m-3 and I just pimped each other on it all month long and rocked the shelf at the end.

 

[K31]

Pocket Medicine as a pocket guide. I like the Washington Manual too, but it is a bit too big to carry around in your pocket all the time.

 

[BelieveTheHype]

Thanks for the great feedback, please continue posting your experiences with these different books. Looks like the Pocket Med is winning by a landslide. One thing i noticed about the book while I saw it online was that it was very monochromatic and it didn't have too many pictures in comparison to the Oxford Handbook series.

 

[penguinophile]

I want to say the new Green pocket med is a little more picture filled, but that really isn't its purpose...if you need pictures not the book for you. If you need all the facts in an easily accessible place pocket medicine is perfect

 

[PMPMD]

Why choose just one? I have several on my iPhone. But if you're still into lugging around paper, go with Pocket Medicine.