cheap med supplies

[Doreen]

I was searching on the internet and I believe that I've found the lowest prices on medical instruments. The website is: www.instrumentsplus.com. They have the good brands (Littmann, Tycos, WelchAllyn,...)
If anyone finds a website that has cheaper prices, please let me and everyone else on this forum know. The more money we all save, the better.

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[edgar]

I bought a top-of-the-line Littman for like $50 off its retail price. Go to http://www.steeles.com. Tom Steele, the owner of the store often does large volume orders for most of the osteopathic medical schools. I'm going to wait till I get to COMP to see what kind of prices I can get for a BP Cuff and Otoscope/Opthmaloscope. But I think Steele Medical Supply can get me a better price.

EDGAR

 

[Doreen]

instrumentsplus.com is still cheaper than steeles.com even without a student discount although steeles has a larger selection. Another good site is www.usmedstudents.com but the first website is still lower than that.

 

[TP]

Hey all-
Can somebody tell me if/ why we need medical supplies/instruments in our first two years? I would imagine that if we're going to have any patient contact it would be very superficial and not indepth (i.e. pt. history and vitals). Also, doesn't the facility where we have pt. contact have the needed supplies. I'm rather uninformed about all this. I can see where a good stethoscope would come in handy but i don't see the relevance for any other instruments. On my interview at azcom, the student tour guides told us that they all bought a nice medical bag with all these cool gadgets but they didn't have much use for it yet. Can somebody shed some light on this subject for me? Thanks.

 

[prefontaine]

TP, you are quite correct. Save your $$. Pick up a stethoscope and forget the rest of the toys. If you really want it (to impress your layfriends and family?), plenty of students will be dumping there old stuff for cheap, since they never used it. During the clinical years, the equipment is available on site. Same with texts, save your $$. Buy a few review books, but skip the big, heavy texts that are best used for a doorstop. Hell, you aren't going to have time to read them anyway. When you arrive at school, all innocent and goo-goo eyed, with sucker stamped on your forehead, there will be attempts to sell you all kind of crap that you do not need, eg massage/OMT tables, dx equipment, etc. Do not fall for it, unless you enjoy moving a ton of almost useless junk around with you on rotations. Better yet, just send the $$ to me, I can use it for my move to the big city.

 

[Henry]

I do not know the curriculum in other schools, butr in NOVA, your very first year is the year of physical exam training. You have to buy the equipments when you study in NOVA because you WILL BE train to use them.

In addition, in first and second year, NOVA will hire surrogates to come to the school and act as real patients. You will be intervewing the surrogates as real patients and do H & P. If you don't have your equipments, you can't even practice at home or do the surrogate interview. This is how NOVA prepares its students ready for the rotation. By end of second year, we will be ready for the boards and the rotation.

Do other schools have similar curricula?

 

[Deb]

I agree that students shouldn't have to spend a fortune buying medical equipment,
but at UHS, it is required. The physical diagnosis course (1st and 2nd yrs) has
surrogate patients, and 2nd yrs spend one day a week for 4 wks, doing complete
physicals for kids at low income elementary schools (which was really fun and also
good practice). Also, there are still some clinics that DON'T have equipment in
every exam room. On my preceptorship last summer I had to have my own head kit.
For those whose schools DON'T require equipment, please find someone who has all
the "toys" and spend some time practicing, because it's not quite as easy as it
looks and you don't want to look like an idiot in front of a preceptor.

 

[2003]

Henry, can you tell me how much you paid for your supplies? Was it that great of a deal or should I just try to find a good buy now? What sort of quality of equipment is it? By this, I mean that I know there are stethoscopes that are good... and then there are better ones (for cardiology etc.) and I'm wondering what you bought? Thanks.