Cecil vs Harrison?

[Turtlez]

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I'll be doing prelim medicine as a PGY1 and heading to anesthesia after. Which book should I buy, Cecil or Harrison? Or should I buy something else to read? Thanks for your help!!

 

[obiwan]

Does anyone actually read Harrison's anymore?

 

[drk]

I like the approach Harrison's takes to each disease. Some basic pathophysiology, physical examination, lab findings etc. It gives you a solid understanding of whatever disease you want to read and why certain findings are present. Uptodate is more of a quick reference for me and like the name suggests, just gives the most recent evidence based medicine. It doesn't give much pathophysiology so your're essentially just memorizing stuff. Not my style personally but I use UTD in the hospital and Harrison's at home to brush up on basics.

For a prelim Cecil and Harrison's is over kill. Get the washington manual, perfect book for you. Not as in depth or detailed as the former textbooks but more detailed than the pocket medicine.

 

[CatFactorial]

Psch they're both from UAB.

 

[Siggy]

Does anyone actually read Harrison's anymore?

I like Harrisons if I'm reading for general knowledge (in contrast to an UpToDate consult during a shift).

That said, I'm slightly crazy, I'm an IM resident (in contrast to a anesthesiology resident doing a prelim medicine), and I've never used Cecils.

 

[bashwell]

What do the other interns at your program use? It might be easiest just to use what they use.

 

[Siggy]

Respect. And dont you guys also use MedStudy or MKSAP? IM knows everything! 🙂

MKSAP...

...I'm also the only one at my program that reads Harrisons regularly. I personally believe that you should go through your field's text book at least once during residency. Regardless of how high pathology/high volume your program is, there's only so many patients you can see and you will never see everything during residency that is represented by your field. Especially something as expansive as IM.

 

[zedssssssss]

Harrisons is a waste of time......

 

[Siggy]

Harrisons is a waste of time......

How about you get into med school first?

 

[Turtlez]

I like the approach Harrison's takes to each disease. Some basic pathophysiology, physical examination, lab findings etc. It gives you a solid understanding of whatever disease you want to read and why certain findings are present. Uptodate is more of a quick reference for me and like the name suggests, just gives the most recent evidence based medicine. It doesn't give much pathophysiology so your're essentially just memorizing stuff. Not my style personally but I use UTD in the hospital and Harrison's at home to brush up on basics.

For a prelim Cecil and Harrison's is over kill. Get the washington manual, perfect book for you. Not as in depth or detailed as the former textbooks but more detailed than the pocket medicine.

Which washington manual are you talking about?

The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics or
The Washington Manual Internship Survival Guide

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

obviously its not internship survival guide

 

[IMreshopeful]

I went through residency just fine without any sort of reading guide. I still learned plenty on the job and by using references. On the occasions where it was helpful to actually learn stuff, I used MKSAP.

 

[zedssssssss]

doing mksap early n qs= better score?
or no

 

[bashwell]

doing mksap early n qs= better score?
or no

If your status as "pre-medical" is correct, you probably don't need to worry about it! 😉

 

[zedssssssss]

obv it is not

 

[rokshana]

obv it is not

unless you are a 3 rd year, you don't need to worry about it...