Useful books to have handy during the internship year

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cheruka

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Hi,
Can the current FM residents post what they found useful to carry in their pockets? Amazon, here I come!
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Also, as our phones get "smarter," I found I needed to carry less. I still carry my BLS/ACLS/PALS pocket cards, Maxwells, and the Sanford Guide. I never found the pharmacopia super helpful - I used my epocrates instead.
 
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brats800 said:
Also, as our phones get "smarter," I found I needed to carry less. I still carry my BLS/ACLS/PALS pocket cards, Maxwells, and the Sanford Guide. I never found the pharmacopia super helpful - I used my epocrates instead.
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Well, I didn't have a cell phone in residency believe it or not. Just a pager. It's faster for me to look up something in a book than muddle with a phone.
 
Sanford is critical, but also available as a searchable app. In many cases, I learn better from paper books, but I think that is a specific case where the app outperforms the book.
 
Not currently a resident (just finished last year), but pocket medicine is great for inpatient medicine. Current Practice Guidelines in Primary Care (Lange) was pretty useful in clinic but the info changes pretty fast and there are apps now that tell you most of the preventative things we need to do.

Make sure you carry around some candy/snack bars too =). Best of luck!

Jack
unfailingspring.com
 
Is there any Family Medicine bible like there is for Internal's Harrison's?
 
Blue Dog said:
Probably Rakel.
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This is a good one! I'll be applying into FM next year but for a reference book to have : Textbook of Family Medicine by the Rakel father and son duo is really nice but on the higher side in purchasing cost ($$)! I've met Dr. Rakel (son) before, and he's very passionate with his work.

The other alternate which I am aware of that is used in some FM programs was the Sloane Essentials of Family Medicine too - it seems that either of these are the textbooks used in most residencies, but I am not 100% sure. Can anyone comment otherwise if your program used something else aside from Sloane or Rakel?

When I went to AAFP Resident & Student National Conference the previous year and asked a few of the residency programs/residents what they use for reference/teaching, there didn't seem to be one go-to physical textbook because of all the competing online resources like uptodate/dynamed. Along with your didactic sessions while in training, there's also the AAFP American Family Physician Journal too - comes out 2x month and has more than enough reading to probably keep you busy for a lifetime.

As for pocket books, Pocket Medicine and Washington Manual of Therapeutics seem to be the popular (with the Tarascon's Pharmacaopeia and Sanford Guide to antimicrobial Therapy like the others said).

I kind of liked the Current Clinical Strategies (CCS pocket books) edited by Paul D. Chan as well - there was some overlap between the medicine and family medicine editions and like most physical books, you have to keep in mind of any new updates with treatment and management/screening guidelines. In the end, I'd also consider checking in with what your senior resident colleagues and faculty suggest too.
 
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Blue Dog said:
I used all of those, too.
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I wonder how you managed to carry all of these because I think I saw from another post you mentioned some on-call books too :) Perhaps some set aside in your resident/desk area I take right? One can only fit so many pocket books in a lab coat hehe.

I still prefer physical books to digital versions if at all possible - always found these quicker to find things. The smartphones are still great for some of the medical apps (like 5 minute consult/medical calculators/medscape/medical news RSS feeds).

I'm really looking forward for the American Family Physician Journal app to be ported to android soon - the iOS version is out already from a past AAFP newsletter announcement :

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/american-family-physician/id584854465?mt=8

* wanted to add that the AFP journal app is free if you already have access online or in-print subscription or else there is a monthly fee (didn't compare prices) / also I can't comment on how the journal runs on mobile since I don't have any iOS devices to test (e.g. are content/keywords searchable for each month and past issues, other limitations, table/chart formatting is okay)? I have the print and online version already and I do recall the online version (non-mobile) being accessible already on most of the newer mobile device web browsers though - still would be nice if there was something by itself like this proposed app.
 
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Try MD Pocket. It is like maxwells on steroids. Costs like $15 and has everything maxwells has, and then some. Lots of more useful info like steorid dose conversions, narcotic dose conversions, electrolyte replacement tables, ekg troubleshooter. About the same size too. was the most useful book I have had in residency.

Disclaimer I am IM, but most FP progams have several blocks of inpt med + a bit of ICU plus you will have call, it is a great pocket guide
 
Sorry for reviving this thread but after reading all the threads about what to read prior to starting intern year and what books to have on hand I am even more confused.

I know a lot of people said don't worry and just relax and enjoy your time off but I graduated in 2010 and feel like I need to prepare in someway so that I don't look completely incompetent. I matched into an unopposed family program so I wasn't sure if the IM or family recommendations would be better. Since there are no other residents in the hospital and we are relied upon heavily I feel like the residents in my program are required to know and manage more than we would in an opposed program where the level of care would primarily fall on an IM, surgical, OB etc. resident while the FP resident would be secondary. This is why I'm not sure which book would serve me best in preparing for the upcoming year.

My first month is medicine so I want to be well prepared for the wards. I have Maxwell and the mgh pocket medicine third edition(red) book but don't know if its worth updating to the newer fourth or fifth edition. I read a thread about there not being a huge difference between the red and green book and that the consensus is that the green book isn't as convenient but couldn't find anything on the purple one. So if anyone can recommend which one would serve me best I would appreciate it.

I also have Cecile's and Harrison's but I don't think those are very portable so I plan on using them as a reference for when I'm at home reading.

I am comfortable with outpatient management since I've been practicing since graduating but haven't reviewed anything really since med school which is why I feel like I need to study.

So if anyone, especially those in an unopposed program can make a final recommendation from the list of books from the IM thread and this thread as to which one would be the best that would be really helpful. Thanks
 
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