internship queries-pleeease help

[nilblue]

Hi folks,
Iam about to start my internship this July,and Iam terrribly confused about the wards- Iam an IMG with no US clinical exp.
Can U please give me some opinions about which manual(Wash/Fred Ferri/pocket med etc) to carry in white-coat pocket and whether I require any PDA
or a old bulky organizer will be sufficient for routine work?
Thx in advance.....

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[Winged Scapula]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by nilblue:
•Hi folks,
Iam about to start my internship this July,and Iam terrribly confused about the wards- Iam an IMG with no US clinical exp.
Can U please give me some opinions about which manual(Wash/Fred Ferri/pocket med etc) to carry in white-coat pocket and whether I require any PDA
or a old bulky organizer will be sufficient for routine work?
Thx in advance.....•••••The manual you choose is really a personal matter; programs will not require you to purchase one over the other. The best one to pick is the one with the easiest information to access. I would suggest the following for your coat pocket:

1)Maxwell Quick Medical Reference
2)small calculator (provided you don't get a PDA)
3)Tarascon's or Pocket PDR
4) pocket manual of your choice

Don't purchase anything before you start. You will most likely get a book fund and often drug reps will provide books for free (especially small pocket guides). Your fellow AMG interns and more senior residents can tell you which pocket manuals they find most useful.

As for the PDA, its highly personal as well. I'd say about half of us here (doing Surgery) have them. I can keep my notes on patient lists in my pocket (I can carry about a month's worth of lists with me) and its easier but I cannot carry the depth of information that a PDA can. Again, wait until you start and see what the consensus is on their use.

 

[Stormreaver]

I'm in the same boat----and I'd say that Kimberly's advice is very sound-- in fact I was doing the same thing. In the mean time I still have my battered old copies of the Washington Manual and Current Med from med school to tide me over....

 

[nilblue]

Thanks Kimberly and Stormreaver... I already feel relaxed and coooooool......

 

[NuMD97]

One day real soon you will find a PDA is indispensible for late night emergency calls because it will carry the Epocrates program in it that you downloaded for free from the Net. Not only does it do drug dosing, but includes any possible conflicts with meds the patient already has on board. At 2 AM and especially when you are Night Floating you really don't want to start hunting down big tomes like the PDR to double check references when the pocket PDA has everything available at your fingertips. But wait and see which PDA you might find the most useful. Just like PC and Mac users, there are the friendly "wars" between Visor and Pilot PDA users. I wish you well as you embark on your journey. Good luck!

 

[nilblue]

Thanks...I'll definitely have some serious thinking to do in the next couple of months,
Again, thanks a lot.

 

[Winged Scapula]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by NuMD97:
•One day real soon you will find a PDA is indispensible for late night emergency calls because it will carry the Epocrates program in it that you downloaded for free from the Net. Not only does it do drug dosing, but includes any possible conflicts with meds the patient already has on board. At 2 AM and especially when you are Night Floating you really don't want to start hunting down big tomes like the PDR to double check references when the pocket PDA has everything available at your fingertips. But wait and see which PDA you might find the most useful. Just like PC and Mac users, there are the friendly "wars" between Visor and Pilot PDA users. I wish you well as you embark on your journey. Good luck! •••••Hmmm...I understand not wanting to track down PDRs in the middle of the night, that's what the Pharmacists are for (I just call them if I have a question)! :wink:

 

[NuMD97]

And I, too, have done that, Kim. But sometimes it depends on just how knowledgeable the pharmacist is. And oftentimes they are not available in the middle of the night as well. Just some things to consider.