Thanks SurfingDoctor and jonb12997! I really appreciate the time you took to read my post and reply! 🙂
To be honest, during my pediatric rotation I used both the Harriet and the Pocket Pediatrics, and I didn't like them... they weren't as practical as my Pocket medicine... but apparently in my new program everybody loves them.... I'm a really big fan of using the internet as my main source of info, however in the past (during my Ob/gyn rotation) a resident didn't like my empty pockets, she even told me that it demonstrated my lack of interest... therefore I wanted to get more opinions before buying the mainstream material at my institution... btw I don't like uptodate either, I mean the info is great and current but they really need to work in the format....
welcome to the world of being an intern. It's now about whether you get the right answer, not where you get it from or how you look obtaining it. Speed matters to some extent, but once you're the one responsible, being right takes precedent. You're OB/GYN resident was completely off base.
What you need to carry:
PALS card - one of the greatest pieces of advice I ever received from a chief resident was that she didn't worry about the codes that were called on really sick kids, because at some point, she would no longer have to think, she could just pull out her PALS card and follow the directions. As someone staring their PICU fellowship in 12 days, I agree with this sentiment...at a certain point, the card takes over and that's the evidence based, standard of care, and no greater resource exists.
A Pediatric Formulary that's not Epocrates. Whether it's an app on your phone or the Harriet Lane, you have to have some sort of peripheral brain that gives you accurate drug doses for children. Epocrates is horrible and has a multitude of errors. My personal preference is Lexi-Comp which is frequently updated and always accurate and something you can get on your phone. Always ask your IT people or pharmacists if there is an institutional subscription. If you have access to both HL and LC, always use LC - it gets updated, the Harriet Lane does not. Plus it's faster to search lexi-comp than flip through hundreds of pages in the Harriet Lane.
The standard carry along card/book for your hospital. Many residency programs have developed some sort of reference card/notebook. If nothing else, you're at least using the same reference as everyone else. Some are more focused towards the nuts/bolts how to function within that particular hospital with lots of phone numbers/who to call/etc. Others are much more broadly applicable with evidenced based guidelines and various algorithms. It won't cover everything, but it'll hit the high points.
As far as internet resources go, I personally think UpToDate is reliable, but the most important skill for a new resident is utilizing it appropriately. UTD should never be your final source. The fact that it's so well cited is the best aspect of UTD. Use the bibliography as your starting source for primary materials, look at the sources for that primary article and with 3 very short searches (the UTD article, the papers UTD cites and the information cited in the primary articles) you're likely to have a significant amount of understanding of the topic and the research considerations...even if you only glance at abstracts.
