critical care/procedure texts

[xjohns1]

hi guys,

i'm a fourth-year med student going into anesthesia. i'm going to be doing an icu month as a student and have an interest in evenutally possibly doing a fellowship. anyway, first things first. i'm wondering if you have any suggestions for a good introductory critical care text that i could use as a student and possibly use during residency. i realize having a dedicated text is probably not entirely necessary, but i'm a textbook learner and would appreciate any suggestions. i'd also really like suggestions for a procedures text. i know there's one for emergency medicine procedures, but i'm wondering if there's anything more dedicated toward anesthesia/critical care procedures. thank you in advance.

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[DenRock]

I did a surgical internship, so the learning curve for bedside procedures was very steep. Gained priveleges for all of them within first two weeks of training. The book I liked the most for procedures was Manual of Common Bedside Procedures by Johns Hopkins. For critical care, I read The ICU Book by Marino when I was in med school and internship; now I read mostly a large Critical Care Medicine book, sorry can't remember the name.

 

[cchoukal]

I'm a 4th year medical student who's done 2 ICU rotations so far, and I was about to recommend the exact same 2 books Denrock mentioned. Marino is very accessible at the medical student level and Chen (the lead author of the Hopkins procedure guide) is also clear and easy to understand.

Denrock, I may be naive, but tell me what you mean by "gain[ing] priveliges in the first two weeks."

 

[DenRock]

Denrock, I may be naive, but tell me what you mean by "gain[ing] priveliges in the first two weeks."

In that program, we had a sort of skills checklist - we had to perform 5 of each procedure (chest tube, central line at each site, arterial line, etc) while supervised by staff, then were considered to be "technically proficient." It was really important at the VA - nursing had a list of which residents were considered to have priveleges. If you weren't on that list, they had to call an attending to do the procedure.

I guess my point was that I was able to do lots of procedures in a very short time in my intership, and quickly became technically proficient.

 

[cchoukal]

gotcha. Thanks.

 

[Trisomy13]

hi guys,

i'm a fourth-year med student going into anesthesia. i'm going to be doing an icu month as a student and have an interest in evenutally possibly doing a fellowship. anyway, first things first. i'm wondering if you have any suggestions for a good introductory critical care text that i could use as a student and possibly use during residency. i realize having a dedicated text is probably not entirely necessary, but i'm a textbook learner and would appreciate any suggestions. i'd also really like suggestions for a procedures text. i know there's one for emergency medicine procedures, but i'm wondering if there's anything more dedicated toward anesthesia/critical care procedures. thank you in advance.

"The ICU Book" by Paul Marino

recommended to me by several trauma surgeons in the SICU, and praised by many residents. it's a comprehensive and comprehendable text for the ICU. well worth whatever you pay for it, and a good reference to keep.

 

[2ndyear]

I second Marino. Excellent book. My other faves:
1) Lange Current Critical Care Diagnosis & Treatment. Excellent book. Softcover but quite useful. Really great and pretty up to date (more so than Marino). Great trauma, neuro, burns sections for comprehensive SICU coverage.

2) Critical Care Handbook of MGH. This is pocket-sized but BIG on info and procedures. Walks you through common stuff. Not only a great reference for ICU, but for any rotation as an intern. I highly recommend this one. Obviously written by MGH people, most of them anesthesiologists.

Others:
I have Irwin & Rippe's pocket book as well. It's not that great as a pocket reference. The full text is excellent, however. The pocket book just isn't that useful, or at least not as much as the MGH text. A lot of UMass authors (some anesthesia).

The ICU Intern Survival guide is kinda what it sounds like. Not bad, but not great either. I did use it occasionally but have given up on it. Plus it fell apart.

If you get a chance to take the FCCS course that text is pretty good for basic things.