Pocket Books for the Intern

[emtji]

so in preparing for intern year...can y'all offer some guidance on medicine guide books that might be useful? i already have the palm software (hopkins guide, merck, epocrates), tarascon's pharmacopeia, pocket medicine and a sanford guide. i wanted to add one of the following:

Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook
The Washington Manual Internship Survival Guide
Intern Pocket Survival Guide by Thomas M., M.D. Masterson

I'm doing a prelim only, so don't need an IM resident's knowledge base.

thanks!

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[colbgw02]

get the small, spiral-bound companion book to the ACLS course entitled "handbook of cardiovacular emergency...yada yada yada"...

the first time you have to run a code and you forget your own name, you'll be glad you have it on your person.

 

[jennyboo]

That's one heavy white coat you're gonna have.

I've been carrying nothing but our hospital's own antiobiotics booklet and a sheet on electrolyte repletion. For the rest, I use a computer to look things up on UpToDate or Micromedex. I don't think any of your three choices add much value to what you've already got (Epocrates, Tarascon, Pocket Medicine). You'll abandon most of your pocket drug guides, tables, and algorithms within the first few weeks of internship and you honestly won't need them, so why waste money on them? Not to mention you will be able to move around more easily while carrying less, and save your pocket space for stuff you will really use (pens, food).

I personally would just get a real book to read at home or during down time while on nights or overnight call. Invest in something you are really interested in reading and may actually find the energy to keep reading (i.e. the most basic text everyone reads for your chosen specialty), or a Step 3 book, or perhaps Washington Manual if you're fascinated by all things in Internal Medicine (yeah, I know you're not). You'll find there are times you read a lot (my first unit month early in the year, for example) and many months you don't read (my ward months -- too busy). Either way, get a book you might actually find interesting, and stick with it.

 

[Apollyon]

Tarascon IM/Critical Care and a Sanford. Having done prelim IM, that's all I needed.

Anything in the Washington Manual you can find on UpToDate (and I have yet to be at ANY hospital that doesn't have an institutional subscription), and all you need for ACLS as an intern is a pocket card. If you are running the code beyond the first round of drugs as an intern, you're either at the VA, or have made a BAD choice. Epi, atropine, and lidocaine/amiodarone are the only meds in the first round.

 

[DeLaughterDO]

don't forget vasopressin for VF/pulseless VT

 

[Apollyon]

don't forget vasopressin for VF/pulseless VT

Strong work, 'tern! Good catch!

 

[orientedtoself]

pocket medicine

 

[Broken Ankles]

so in preparing for intern year...can y'all offer some guidance on medicine guide books that might be useful? i already have the palm software (hopkins guide, merck, epocrates), tarascon's pharmacopeia, pocket medicine and a sanford guide. i wanted to add one of the following:

Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook
The Washington Manual Internship Survival Guide
Intern Pocket Survival Guide by Thomas M., M.D. Masterson

I'm doing a prelim only, so don't need an IM resident's knowledge base.

thanks!

the only book i would add is wash manual survival guide. really useful during the first several months of internship, when you're learning the ropes. having both tarascon pocketbook and pocket med is redundant.

 

[Winged Scapula]

so in preparing for intern year...can y'all offer some guidance on medicine guide books that might be useful? i already have the palm software (hopkins guide, merck, epocrates), tarascon's pharmacopeia, pocket medicine and a sanford guide. i wanted to add one of the following:

Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook
The Washington Manual Internship Survival Guide
Intern Pocket Survival Guide by Thomas M., M.D. Masterson

the only book i would add is wash manual survival guide. really useful during the first several months of internship, when you're learning the ropes. having both tarascon pocketbook and pocket med is redundant.

I think he already has it!

 

[Broken Ankles]

so in preparing for intern year...can y'all offer some guidance on medicine guide books that might be useful? i already have the palm software (hopkins guide, merck, epocrates), tarascon's pharmacopeia, pocket medicine and a sanford guide. i wanted to add one of the following:

Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook
The Washington Manual Internship Survival Guide
Intern Pocket Survival Guide by Thomas M., M.D. Masterson

I'm doing a prelim only, so don't need an IM resident's knowledge base.

thanks!

re-read bold sentence.

 

[Winged Scapula]

re-read bold sentence.

D'oh...you are absolutely correct my friend.

 

[atsai3]

having both tarascon pocketbook and pocket med is redundant.

I agree. Most of the interns and residents in my program carry the Pocket Medicine binder. I look at that thing and think, "ooh, too heavy to carry", but it's pretty useful, and I borrow it from others every now and then to look at things like the pre-op algorithm (and think to myself, "well, maybe I could take it to Office Max and get it spiral bound" -- not having to carry around the binder would take some of the weight off). For most things, the Tarascon IM/CC pocket book has been fine. For the first few weeks I also carried around the Current Clinical Strategies IM pocket book, but I don't use it much now. Tried the Wash Manual Intern Survival Guide, didn't find it helpful.

-AT.

 

[Bertelman]

If you are running the code beyond the first round of drugs as an intern, you're either at the VA, or have made a BAD choice.

I'll never forget the code I saw at the VA as an MS3- Two medicine teams, no less than 5 pocketcards amongst them, from interns on up to the upper-levels. Each of them thumbing through as though it was their first. "Wait, how many doses of epi have we given?" Of course, they couldn't push a single friggin' drug until the Pharm cart showed up with the pharmacist. Apparently nurses aren't to be trusted with resusc drugs. They would rather wait 20 minutes for Pharmacy to arrive with their magic cart.

Best of all, the other three patients in the quad room slept through the entire experience.

 

[DeLaughterDO]

Strong work, 'tern! Good catch!

 

[Mumpu]

Tarascon is a far better (and far smaller) book than the other ones. You don't need comprehensiveness -- you need stuff you can look up at the bedside of a critical patient.

 

[emtji]

hey all, just wanted to say thanks for the recommendations.... i think i'll buy an ipod instead. just kidding.... i'll wait until the year starts and then decide to get something (or not).