Clinical Skills Course Material

[Direction of Time]

Hi guys,

I'll be starting medicine this September and my school recently posted the book list. Our clinical skills course has several "recommended" text books:

-Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking (Bickley, L. S.)
-Skills for communicating with patients (Silverman, J.)
-Evidence-based physical diagnosis (McGee, S.)
-Essentials of general surgery and essentials of surgical specialties (Lawrence, P.F.)
-Cecil Essentials of Medicine (Andreoli, B.I., Griggs, R.C., Wing, E.J., Fitz, J.G.)
-Pediatric Clinical Skills (Goldbloom, R.B.)

None of these are actually "required" books.

If anyone has read some of these books, could you share your thoughts on them and which ones (if any) you'd recommend buying? I'm sure you all know that med school is not a cheap endeavour and I'd like to get the best bang for my buck by buying the most useful resources.

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[DermViser]

Is this for your Medicine rotation or for your Physical Diagnosis course during MS-1/MS-2?

 

[Direction of Time]

It's for the Physical Diagnosis course during MS-1.

 

[Wordead]

I read Bates; thought it was extremely long winded and didn't add much after seeing a few head to toe physicals. But maybe as a M1 it's short enough that it's worth a read.

I don't know what idiot suggested Cecil's but absolutely not. Way too long.

 

[DermViser]

I read Bates; thought it was extremely long winded and didn't add much after seeing a few head to toe physicals. But maybe as a M1 it's short enough that it's worth a read.

I don't know what idiot suggested Cecil's but absolutely not. Way too long.

There's a shorter version of Bates.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

I found Bates to be a worthy read. It's a little long and dry, but it may be better used as a reference. Also, check this golden site out: http://meded.ucsd.edu/clinicalmed/introduction.htm

I don't know how useful the other books will be for you, but when I see "Essentials of general surgery and essentials of surgical specialties" as one of the recommended books, I think some of the books were picked out of a hat.

 

[Brain Bucket]

A lot of smart people prefer Bates' as evidenced by the posts above. It wasn't for me. I went with DeGowin's and Sapira.