No textbooks for a month. Trying to live "completely digital" for a month. Anyone game ?

[lovarts]

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Hey folks,

I am just thinking of going completely paper free as a med student. The fact is that I love reading printed books. And because of that reason I am kind of averse to read something online. Trying to change that.

These are the online resources I use

Mobile
Daily Rounds (for short cases ) : Free
Medscape : Free

Web :
AccessMedicine (Paid) - http://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/
Student Doctor (Free🙂)


I know there are tons of resources available, but I am just keeping it 4-5 max for focus. Also I use a lot of pdf files with annotations. Any folks game ? for a few months digital only reading approach.

Thank you

 

[Say]

I spent all MS1 (almost) never opening a printed book. Our school released pdfs of the syllabus along with the paper form. I have a huge stack, probably a little above my knees of paper syllabi that are still in shrink wrap. I would open the files in preview on my laptop and annotate the syllabus with text boxes. As far as outside resources beyond the curriculum, I had a PDF of Netters and a few BRS subjects. My reasoning for going digital was that I had trouble staying awake looking at unlit paper texts for hours and hours, and some how the glow of the computer screen helped me stay awake. Also, I figured our exams would be digital, and I might as well stay uniform.

 

[Psai]

I spent all MS1 (almost) never opening a printed book. Our school released pdfs of the syllabus along with the paper form. I have a huge stack, probably a little above my knees of paper syllabi that are still in shrink wrap. I would open the files in preview on my laptop and annotate the syllabus with text boxes. As far as outside resources beyond the curriculum, I had a PDF of Netters and a few BRS subjects. My reasoning for going digital was that I had trouble staying awake looking at unlit paper texts for hours and hours, and some how the glow of the computer screen helped me stay awake. Also, I figured our exams would be digital, and I might as well stay uniform.

your eyes are going to get strained
my visual acuity was stable for a few years but after this year, it is noticeably worse

 

[NWwildcat2013]

I am digital except for crunch time studying or when I really am not understanding something. I just make all of my notes into Anki cards and use the internet for clarification on things that I don't understand. If, the week or so before the exam, I still don't understand something then I will bust out a pen and paper and write it out or diagram it from the lecture in a way that makes sense to me. I used to do that a lot in undergrad, and I was hesitant to resume it in med school because I had this weird desire to be all digital. It is important not to force yourself to be digital if something else may work better or supplement your learning.

If I do use textbooks (I don't often) then I use a hardcopy if available. To me, reading from a textbook is a very tactile and hands on experience where I need to underline, bracket, draw arrows with notes connecting bracketed sections, etc. I loathe e-books. Chances are that you will have a few different e-book programs and it will be disorienting switching between them all the time and adjusting to the different navigational controls/user interfaces is a nightmare. If I do have to use a book that I don't own and won't use long (like BRS to review for a shelf) then I use a PDF on my computer. Honestly, I think that option is better than any fancy application for reading.

 

[lovarts]

Eyes... yea my eye is kind of fused...
Tried using Kindle, but most of the medical texbooks are not on kindle.
PDF support in kindle is not great either

 

[NWwildcat2013]

Eyes... yea my eye is kind of fused...
Tried using Kindle, but most of the medical texbooks are not on kindle.
PDF support in kindle is not great either

I just use Preview on my Mac. Its the easiest.

 

[MedWonk]

With the exception of my anatomy text/atlas, everything else has been digital. Reading a hard copy does tend to be easier on the eyes, though. I just didn't care to lug around textbooks to and from the library. For me, it outweighed the downside of eye strain, although my visual acuity has been stable for the past 7 years, including after the first year of med school.

 

[Say]

your eyes are going to get strained
my visual acuity was stable for a few years but after this year, it is noticeably worse

Yeah my vision has definitely gotten worse... but prior to med school I was a big PC gamer so my vision has always been messed up by spending hours looking at bright monitors. Do you think reading from a print syllabus is much better?

 

[BamaNicole]

I pretty much do this all the time anyways. I think the only book I consistently open is first aid.