Inpatient Peds Pocket References...

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DonStracci

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What is everyone currently using for inpatient peds reference?
Thanks!

(I asked in another forum)

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Harriet Lane has long been the pediatric Bible. It's great for housestaff. For med students . . . .It's a little dense. I think most folks used question books.

For future housestaff, for <$20 at your local copy store you can get Harriet Lane split and rebound. I carry around just the drug info and code stuff in my pocket. I have the rest of HL in a bag so I can reference it when I need to. I also made some conversion charts and references in a small format and taped them into my HL, along with my PALS card. I have kind of an Inspector gadget HL.
 
I'm doing a peds sub-i in February, and I'll be a family med intern starting July 1st, so "dense" is probably good. Thanks!
 
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The two Tarascon Pediatrics books (Emergency and Critical Care and Outpatient Peds) are both very good and truly are handbooks (you could fit both in the front pocket of your jeans). Most places are going to have a Harriet lying around in just about every clinical space that would need one, you can look up the content on MD Consult, and, bless it, the HLH is too damn heavy to carry around in your pocket unless you want to look like Quasimodo with your 20lb white coat pockets dragging you down (yes, I had an intern who looked just like that)
 
(yes, I had an intern who looked just like that)

Yes, I WAS an intern who looked just like that! But so what? Harriet Lane does have a good formulary part!
Also, when on call and half-asleep at 3:30 am, I would never have walked around without my warm coat (heavy with HL or not) - who cares about looks at that place and time anyway?
 
Sorry, didn't mean to offend:confused:

Everybody will have their own style and preferences, even when it comes to what pocket resources, if any, one uses. I was just trying to point out some of the alternatives. Avoiding the Quasimodo look has nothing to do with looks or fashion sense-it has to do with taking care of yourself. We give a lot to our patients and our residencies and fellowships. Many of us already give up part of our health when we don't find time to work out and eat right (I didn't) and we don't have much choice in the matter of sleep. For me (who already has a bit of a bad upper back from a nasty fall on the ice during med school in Maine) giving up even a small bit of ergonomics for the sake of toting around a book wasn't worth it...for others it will be. BNPG had I nice solution that worked well for him. Using the HLHs, LexiComps, and NeoFaxes (the latter two were my facility's peds dosing bibles) that were lying around everywhere sufficed for me. Alternatively, for the techies loading a PDA with HLH and a drug formulary works great. The Tarascon books have a wealth of info and a decent formulary as well.
 
You didn't offend me; my reply was supposed to be humorous - maybe I should have used more smilies :) I don't mind at all not being fashionable in the middle of a call night.
You're totally right, everyone chooses to carry their own amount and kind of stuff in their pockets. It also depends on what rotation you're on. In our NICU, you could walk around with nothing but the NRP card and maybe some signout sheets on you, because you would find stethoscopes at every bedside and those NeoFax and Lexicomp books at the center station of every room. :cool: On the general floor, on the other hand, you might have been a long walk away from the workroom where you'd find those books. :annoyed: or :yawn:
 
Now we can be friends again:D

Couple of other paper resources: "Manual of Pediatric Therapeutics"(http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Pediatric-Therapeutics-John-Graef/dp/0781771668/ref=pd_sim_b_22). I perused this in a bookstore and was very impressed. A little lighter than HLH. Fonts are a little smaller, but this book is a little more of a mini reference book (i.e. a little more in depth that HLH). I think it's published by the same people who make the Ferri Guide to the Care of the Medical Patient (for those who remember any IM stuff) and reminds me of that book-which was my favorite IM pocketbook. The other is the "The Philadelphia Guide: Inpatient Pediatrics" http://www.amazon.com/Philadelphia-...r_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232148771&sr=1-11. I have this book, but I generally found it wanting as a handbook. That being said, it is a nice bathroom book from which you can read from when you're otherwise indisposed and want a quick brush-up. I actually think the Manual of Pediatric Therapeutics could present serious competition to the HLH, but since every residency gets a ton of free HLHs from vendors, the latter will likely remain the standard.

For the electronically inclined: the newest HLH on Skyscape has pretty good navigation (in contrast to the old Mobipocket version), and is, well, the HLH, but much lighter-$50. PediSuite is an excellent resource and definitely worth the $45. Well worth downloading the trial which is fully featured until the trial expires. I may get Pedi LexiComp on my smart phone; I've always read good things about it-$70 for the basic version. Epocrates isn't bad, but anything that is off label for peds prescribing isn't going to be in it and info is relatively minimal. Mobile Merck Medicus is free for medical professionals and has some great content. The Merck Manual itself has a pretty decent amount of peds based info. The lab guide is very nice too. Mobile Merck+ Free Epocrates makes the Epocrates Essentials unneeded IMHO (I trialed it and wasn't that impressed). All of these run on both Palm and Winmo (since my cell carrier only does Winmo smart phones I had to transition from my beloved Palm). Med Calc is a great free program, but better on the Palm. Medical Eponyms is another great free one, again, better on Palm, but acceptable on Winmo.
 
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