Books?!

[toshioknzo]

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Hie. I'm kim. (a guy!)
Uhm...I'm really sorry, I dunno whr to post this msg.
I'll be going to manchester med school for clinical years this August 2007. And, I would really like to know what books is a 'must get' or highly recommended during clinical phase. This is because I think I'll buy them here in my home country as it might be cheaper n I think I do need some reading before start my sem. (dis is not a bright student!)

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks. 🙂

 

[leorl]

You'll find at most places that there isn't really a "must get" list, which makes things rather difficult when trying to study!! However, here are some quite good ones which seem rather standard:

1) Clinical Examination - Nicholas Talley & Simon O'Connor. Some also use Bailey and Love.
2) either Kumar & Clark Clinical Medicine, or Davidson's Clinical Medicine (both books are huge, I would recommend doing a little bit each day, which of course...no one ever does!)
3) Oxford Clinical Handbook of Medicine

For surgery, pocketbooks can be handy - some people use Churchill's Surgery or Oxford CLinical handbook of surgery, Surgical Talk. A bigger book to get would be Clinical Surgery (cuchieri) but that in my opinion is way too big.
And it might be helpful to get a differential diagnosis book.

However, note that some of these books are very big and will weigh down your luggage. Maybe get the smaller ones and then buy the bigger ones when you're in the UK.

 

[gmacpac]

Hey Kim,

I would definitly recommend that you buy your books in your home country.
I always buy tons of books whenever I travel to asia. The extra wieght you will carry is difinity worth the hundreds of dollars you will save on their price.

On that note, I agree with Leorl, there isn't a "list". Basically we all use whatever works best for us.

One of my favorite books is "Currents Medicine"

Another good book to have is "The washington manual for medical therapeutics"

Good luck

 

[khl31]

For learning the basics of clinical examination, I second Talley+O'Connor. That said though, there is nothing like practice. Textbooks only get you so far with regards to clinical/practical skills.

Depending on keenness, you might find the 2 volumes of "An Aid to the MRCP PACES" by Banerjee et al useful. It might seem like overkill to use these for clinical school, but the books are really well written and presented, and teach you a focussed, tighter examination rather than the shotgun, do-everything-i-can-think-of approach that one is taught as a medical student. For surgery, go find a similar equivalent (MRCS final exam revision book), which should do the trick. You don't even need to reach the level the textbooks expect the readers to reach! Having understood... half, of what they want you to understand, will probably stand you in very good stead for medical school finals!

Clinical textbooks. For an intro to subjects, you can try Medicine and Surgery at a Glance. Good, gentle overview of topics. Perhaps move on to Lecture Notes in Clinical Medicine and General Surgery for more detail. If you find that lacking, Robbins', Harrison's or something along that line will keep you happy. I wouldn't rush to buy the "granddaddy" textbooks (Robbins' etc) yet. Crash Course in Pathology is probably a good idea for Path finals.

As for stuff to carry on the wards, I recommend a PDA. With a certain amount of... resourcefulness, there are many electronic references, OHCM and Washington Manuals included, which are freely available on the internet. (I personally find the Washington Manuals concentrate too much on patient management to be a good textbook for medical students. OHCM is much more useful in that regard, providing background info and pathology, etc, which can be difficult to sift out of the Washington Manuals when you're in a hurry.)



And yes, definitely buy a few textbooks at home. They cost about half of what they would here.

 

[VeerTheTIGuy]

apparently Maxwell's Quick Medical Reference is an amazing thing for your coat pocket

 

[leorl]

THe Maxwell quick reference is handy, I like it... However, all the units are using US units...which may cause confusion with UK units. for example, sure...on bags of NS you could see and use 135 mEq as standard, but then on your exams they want normal values in mmol/L or something and you get thrown off. So if you use maxwells, then at least write in the side the UK equivalents.

 

[toshioknzo]

Thanks everyone.
I think I'll get the oxford surgery and clinical medicine first as a start.
But, are there any difference between Kumar Clark, vs Davidsons? When I read Davidsons, it gives me the impression, that it's too brief don't you think.
Any suggestions?
Oh...I might want to get a clinical anatomy book too. What do you guys reckon? 😎

 

[leorl]

neither cover all of the info that you want to know. The new Davidson's supposedly better than the older Kumar and Clark.

 

[toshioknzo]

Okay... thanks leorl. Thanks people.

Erm, can I have all your contacts?? I'll give you all my email add. Hope you guys don't share it with 'too' many 'strangers'. [email protected]

🙄 take care people.

 

[leorl]

why post your email address? If you want to get in contact with us, just send us a private message. To get theere, click on the person's user name next to their post, then in the pull-down list, click "send user a private message"