Good Book for IM Prelim

[Ophtho24]

I am in the market for a book that will teach me how to get my patients in and out of the hospital in as little time as possible. I worked with a prelim my 3rd year of med school that had seemed to master this skill. He would basically order every test on the night of admission that needed to either a) come back negative so the patient could be discharged or b) come back positive so the patient would be transferred to another team (ie Cards, Pulm, ICU.) I know Wash Manual tells you what to do with patients but what I am really looking for is something that can guide my decisions as to the big picture of the patients entire hospital stay and eventual discharge. For example a patient with chest pain that needs to be ruled out gets their enzymes drawn, placed on O2, MONA protocal, and gets either a excercise treadmill or a nuc stress test. Does anything like this exist?? I know you guys probably don't love this cookie cutter approach to medicine, but I think it would really help me survive my prelim year. Thanks for any help in advance.

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[Ophtho24]

Maybe this is just wishful thinking that a book such as this exists. I guess it would be sort of program and attending specific, but one of you guys should make it and title it "The Prelim Medicine Survival Guide" I think you could sell a lot of them.

 

[u_r_my_serenity]

Have you heard of Pocket Medicine. If not, I suggest you check it out.

 

[Ophtho24]

Have you heard of Pocket Medicine. If not, I suggest you check it out.

Is the PDA version as good as the text. I have never read the book but another med student told me it was good before but complained that it was very hard to carry around, so if the Palm version is just as good then maybe that would be a good way to go. I have Ferry Guide now and am pretty unimpressed with the PDA version it has almost no info on the most common county hospital admissions such as management of ascites. Has anyone tried Skyscapes palm version?

 

[APACHE3]

Pocket medicine hard to carry?? lol. Its probably the "smallest" of the top pocket manuals. has probably 80-90% of what you will see. the other 10%, you'll use uptodate anyway. Check out PM.

 

[TCOM-2006]

i second the recom of pocket medicine - i really love it. it gives you very quick, up to date evidence based information without having to wade through reading paragraphs. it is NOT hard to carry around, and i prefer the print version b/c it shows charts / flow-diagrams better. get it!!

 

[gutonc]

There was a recent thread on this. Pocket Medicine came out the winner with the print version beating out the PDA version. I have Ferri and Wash Man on my PDA and I'm planning to pick up the print PM. I'll use my paper Ferri copy to anchor my backpack to the floor.

BE

 

[Ophtho24]

Does anyone actually have the PDA version though? I really try to keep pocket books to a bare minimum, don't like any weight on my back during marathon rounding with attendings. I will probably just risk it and get the PDA version. My only concern is does the book have a whole bunch of algorithms and/or diagrams that might get lost in the conversion to palm?

 

[gutonc]

Does anyone actually have the PDA version though? I really try to keep pocket books to a bare minimum, don't like any weight on my back during marathon rounding with attendings. I will probably just risk it and get the PDA version. My only concern is does the book have a whole bunch of algorithms and/or diagrams that might get lost in the conversion to palm?

This was the main issue in the other thread. The beauty of PM is the charts, algorithms and diagrams that aren't included in the PDA version. One person on that thread said he had both and almost never used the PDA one.

I feel your pain though. I don't really want to have much more in my pockets than strictly necessary but I think I'm going with the hard copy alongside my Palm.

BE

 

[herenow]

There was a recent thread on this. Pocket Medicine came out the winner with the print version beating out the PDA version. I have Ferri and Wash Man on my PDA and I'm planning to pick up the print PM. I'll use my paper Ferri copy to anchor my backpack to the floor.

BE

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. Which Ferri book is it? I looked under amazon and there's many books by Fred Ferri. Thanks!

 

[gutonc]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. Which Ferri book is it? I looked under amazon and there's many books by Fred Ferri. Thanks!

"Practical guide to the care of the medical patient." It's about 1100 pages long but is a "pocket book" and some people are insane enought to carry it around with them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0323028578/ref=ed_oe_o/002-6270485-5294462?_encoding=UTF8

I don't remember paying anywhere near that much in my bookstore though. 6th Ed. is current (2004) but I'm not sure when the next one is coming out.

BE

 

[quidnunc]

Any input on the Osler Medical Handbook? I heard the new edition is easier to carry and better than the first.