Exactly HOW do you use Orthobullets as an MS3

[GonefromTX]

I really wanna ace the upcoming ortho rotation, impress my attending by answering their pimping questions and hopefully get good letters.

Many people suggest using Orthobullets but exactly how do you use it? Do you do the free 2400 practice questions? Or do you look at the "high-yield topics" in each section (e.g. Trauma) and read the whole thing?

I'm currently finishing up on reading Netter's Concise Orthopedics. Those free 2400 questions are hard af in my opinion so i dont really know what else to do.

Thanks in advance!

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[VincentAdultman]

Of course they're hard. Their meant for orthopedic residents studying for in training and ABOS exams.

I'd stick with Netters, Hoppenfeld, and the Fracture handbook tbh.

 

[GonefromTX]

Of course they're hard. Their meant for orthopedic residents studying for in training and ABOS exams.

I'd stick with Netters, Hoppenfeld, and the Fracture handbook tbh.

So just read these 3 over and over again?

 

[VincentAdultman]

So just read these 3 over and over again?

That's what I did. Unless you can memorize the relevant anatomy for the approaches you're going to see, fracture class etc. on the first try. If so, good for you.

But like I said Orthobullets isn't really geared toward MS3s so I'm not sure how much old you're going to get from it.

It's more about how hard you work and how much they like to have you around than it is about answering pimp questions. But if you have your heart set on doing Orthobullets look up the high yield topic that interests you. Read the outline and do the questions. And if your real motivated, read the cited journal articles.

That's how I prepared for the board exam.

 

[FutureDoc1088]

While it's great to know everything, I don't think it's feasible to learn all of orthobullets as an M3. I'm an intern and still haven't gone through it all. To do well on rotations, study for your cases by figuring out the schedule for the surgeon or service you're on, then gearing your study to those topics. Focus heavily on the surgical approach/anatomy for that approach with Hoppenfeld's/Netter's. You can try to read through the notes to determine what the surgical plan is for the patients (Epic makes this easy, not sure about other EMRs). If you don't have access to the schedule or notes online, go to the OR front desk to get the schedule ahead of time and realize there could be add-ons after you get the schedule. This is more difficult when on trauma for obvious reasons. For clinic, if you have EMR access you can almost "cheat" by looking up the patients the night before and: 1) if they're following up, you know what has already happened and what the plan is going forward, or 2) you can see there's a new patient scheduled with X complaint and possibly has imaging completed that you might be able to view. Also, you see how they write their notes and what things they focus on for the history and physical exam (make sure to learn how to do the exam maneuvers you see in the notes so you can perform them and report them appropriately). I say cheat because you can make it look like you know all of orthobullets, when in reality you just focused your study to what you're currently seeing. It's just preparing appropriately and staying focused - ortho is a huge field.

Also, Handbook of Fractures is great for trauma and I would read the section for whatever injury you're seeing. AO Surgery Reference is a great free app for some principals.

To answer your actual question, I used orthobullets to quickly read about topics I was seeing in clinic or the OR. Sometimes I literally only had time to read a few lines while turning over rooms so I had some idea of what we were doing. As a resident I feel like I'm going through it more systematically. Generally, you're going to be asked anatomy stuff as an M3/M4.

Hope this helps!

 

[GonefromTX]

While it's great to know everything, I don't think it's feasible to learn all of orthobullets as an M3. I'm an intern and still haven't gone through it all. To do well on rotations, study for your cases by figuring out the schedule for the surgeon or service you're on, then gearing your study to those topics. Focus heavily on the surgical approach/anatomy for that approach with Hoppenfeld's/Netter's. You can try to read through the notes to determine what the surgical plan is for the patients (Epic makes this easy, not sure about other EMRs). If you don't have access to the schedule or notes online, go to the OR front desk to get the schedule ahead of time and realize there could be add-ons after you get the schedule. This is more difficult when on trauma for obvious reasons. For clinic, if you have EMR access you can almost "cheat" by looking up the patients the night before and: 1) if they're following up, you know what has already happened and what the plan is going forward, or 2) you can see there's a new patient scheduled with X complaint and possibly has imaging completed that you might be able to view. Also, you see how they write their notes and what things they focus on for the history and physical exam (make sure to learn how to do the exam maneuvers you see in the notes so you can perform them and report them appropriately). I say cheat because you can make it look like you know all of orthobullets, when in reality you just focused your study to what you're currently seeing. It's just preparing appropriately and staying focused - ortho is a huge field.

Also, Handbook of Fractures is great for trauma and I would read the section for whatever injury you're seeing. AO Surgery Reference is a great free app for some principals.

To answer your actual question, I used orthobullets to quickly read about topics I was seeing in clinic or the OR. Sometimes I literally only had time to read a few lines while turning over rooms so I had some idea of what we were doing. As a resident I feel like I'm going through it more systematically. Generally, you're going to be asked anatomy stuff as an M3/M4.

Hope this helps!

That is great. Love the "cheat" approach.

Thanks!!!

 

[massmocha]

That is great. Love the "cheat" approach.

Thanks!!!

Orthobullets can be used as a reference for the cases you are going to see, particularly the anatomy of the approach. If you are going to the OR try to ask the resident you're with (if you know ahead of time) what approach to look up. That will have the muscles and dangerous anatomy in that area. The most common questions you will be asked are "what muscle is this?" "what innervates this muscle?" "what nerve is this?" "what artery is this?" and more than any other question, you will be asked "who sings this song?"

Always have your Netter's and a pair of scissors on you, that is the most important thing aside from being nice to everyone and always being interested in what is going on around you.