Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

Clerkship resources


Recommended Posts

Hi all,

Can anybody suggest any resources that might be good prep for clerkship in general? My plan is to re-read some of the key texts we did in pre-clerkship (clinical skills, basic pathophys, etc) but any additional clerkship-prep resources people have found helpful would be awesome.

Cheers

A

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, anesthete said:

Hi all,

Can anybody suggest any resources that might be good prep for clerkship in general? My plan is to re-read some of the key texts we did in pre-clerkship (clinical skills, basic pathophys, etc) but any additional clerkship-prep resources people have found helpful would be awesome.

Cheers

A

this will help me update my info as well ha - when I went through we had all of the case file series. Seemed like very high yield. Is that still a thing out there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm looking for something that goes from a symptoms -> diagnosis approach

Ex: patient presents with hemoptysis - what's the most common on the differential diagnosis and how will you work up to differentiate b/w them (ex: hemoptysis - bronchiectasis, bronchitis, lung cancer, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, tuberculosis = most common, what are the distinguishing features b/w them, then you'd do a Chest X-ray as your first line and maybe spirometry; a sputum culture, CBC test for infections, etc.)

Is there any textbooks that anyone found helpful for this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, brady23 said:

I'm looking for something that goes from a symptoms -> diagnosis approach

Ex: patient presents with hemoptysis - what's the most common on the differential diagnosis and how will you work up to differentiate b/w them (ex: hemoptysis - bronchiectasis, bronchitis, lung cancer, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, tuberculosis = most common, what are the distinguishing features b/w them, then you'd do a Chest X-ray as your first line and maybe spirometry; a sputum culture, CBC test for infections, etc.)

Is there any textbooks that anyone found helpful for this?

.....that still sounds like Case Files to me :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, brady23 said:

I'm looking for something that goes from a symptoms -> diagnosis approach

Ex: patient presents with hemoptysis - what's the most common on the differential diagnosis and how will you work up to differentiate b/w them (ex: hemoptysis - bronchiectasis, bronchitis, lung cancer, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, tuberculosis = most common, what are the distinguishing features b/w them, then you'd do a Chest X-ray as your first line and maybe spirometry; a sputum culture, CBC test for infections, etc.)

Is there any textbooks that anyone found helpful for this?

CaseFiles is adequate as R says above; if you want a book that gives you lists, you can use Symptoms to Diagnosis. Supplement with OnlineMedEd lectures and you'll be good.

If you want an approach to a specific symptom from start to bottom, and want to learn how to investigate and manage more like a resident, then I would actually use 'point of care' resources like DynaMed (it's a more concise version of UpToDate but contains much less information) or UpToDate.

However going with the textbooks is generally more useful for clerkship (which is what I'm assuming you're studying for). Many attendings will expect you to know 'medical student level knowledge' and may not even bother to ask you any questions on investigations and management beyond the basics. There will be many who focus on pathophysiology, H&P, and diagnosis heavily, and will look for you to mention random 'key facts' or buzzwords. CaseFiles and other textbooks are more likely to highlight those random key facts to know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, brady23 said:

I'm looking for something that goes from a symptoms -> diagnosis approach

Ex: patient presents with hemoptysis - what's the most common on the differential diagnosis and how will you work up to differentiate b/w them (ex: hemoptysis - bronchiectasis, bronchitis, lung cancer, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, tuberculosis = most common, what are the distinguishing features b/w them, then you'd do a Chest X-ray as your first line and maybe spirometry; a sputum culture, CBC test for infections, etc.)

Is there any textbooks that anyone found helpful for this?

Toronto Notes does this actually. I got Toronto Notes and I found it was useful as my go to resource for whenever I needed to look something up after uptodate of course. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As the others have said, Case Files are useful. The Mass Gen Pocket Medicine book is a handy one for IM, as well, though not so much presentation to diagnosis workup.

The books I found most helpful generally for practical/useful knowledge on the go - the stuff that makes you a helpful med student - were the pocket survival guides that Mac had for IM, psych, and paeds. I’m sure each school has their own versions of some of these. Less ‘book knowledge’ about what the six major categories of common aetiologies of XYZ are, but more helpful for figuring out workups and management. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can someone please explain UWorld to me a little more? I see that there are different "types" of UWorld, and I am wondering which one (Step 1, Step 2 CK, Step 2 CS) is most appropriate for clerkship rotation studying? I would assume Step 2 CK is the one that students use, but I just want some clarification before I go spending a few hundred dollars - thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

everyone says case files but honestly, its way too superficial to be much use beyond telling you WHAT to study. 

Toronto notes is great and should probably be the #1 resource, after you review your class notes (since it skips most basic science and is mostly concise clinical stuff).

I would also recommend simply typing in the disorder into medscape and reading through...all the articles are excellently cited, evidence-based, and it goes through differentials and all that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...