Guest IRNBRUD Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 I'm trying to get an idea of which books and how many I will need for my first year of meds. There are lots of recommendations scattered about the board, but no central list. I would really appreciate it if anyone would be willing to share their absolutely "must haves" for a first year student (especially a first year student at Mac) in the form of say a top 5 or 10(gosh I hope not :eek ). Cheers, IB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 Might be different for Mac, but for UWO the books you MUST HAVE are: Netter's Anatomy (maybe) Barbara Bates's guide to Clinical Exam But there's a lot of other books you MAY want - don't trust any one person's opinion!! Best bet is those threads in the Textbooks/Equipment section. . . they do give a fairly comprehensive discussion about what's out there, and offer a number of perspectives. . . from students at different schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IRNBRUD Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 Thanks UWO...I guess I could rephrase my question. What are your recommended book purchases for first year? I do realize that book choice is a personal thing...just want to get a "survey-says"- type list. 8o IB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lcloh Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 An anatomy atlas and a clinical skills book. I vote for Netter's and Bates. But that's at UWO, I dunno what it's like at other schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cheech10 Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 I vote Netter's and the small UofT clinical exam book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 Top 5 first year books: 1. Anatomy atlas. Netter's, Grant's, Rohan, etc... absolutely necessary. 2. Anatomy workbook/textbook. This includes Dalley and Moore, or even the colouring book. Good for applied problems. 3. General microbiology book or "Clinical Microbiology made Ridiculously Simple". Learning micro is like pumping iron. You have to build up, and you have to do it to get through it. Having a micro background helps, but having a reference guide is key. 4. Medical dictionary. Dorland's is the one that comes to mind, and there are others. For the weird words you get and won't quite understand well enough, but still will try to use in a sentence... 5. Good physiology notes or a good physiology textbook, preferably with diagrams, short notes, and flow sheets. Absolutely essential for renal, respiratory, endocrine, and cardiovascular (in apparently descending order of complexity). 5a. A clinical methods book is necessary! But Bates is somewhat inadequate, and Talley and O'Connor is good but a little derived. Buy one and having access to the other is a good mix. Others include Degowin and Degowin for the obscurata and the really interesting stuff. The U of T clinical examination book is also REALLY GOOD. other possible: biochem book, especially if you don't have the background; embryology book, to help you learn where it all came from; Merck Manual, so you can fit it into disease patterns and processes (for second year, ESSENTIAL---a good start never hurts); Dubin's rapid interpretation of EKG's (for the same reason as the Merck); something that will give you a grounding in effective literature search and appraisal. Hope that helps! Cheers, Graham see also Top 5 Records, in "High Fidelity" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 Irnbrud, I'm in the process of writing up an 'unoffical' guide to resources for your class... Everyone likes different things but the 'must haves' are a few, I'd agree with my colleague above... 1) a great med dictionary: Dorlands or Stedman's (I had Dorland's from my OT degree, then got Stedman's as a gift and like the Stedman's better, more entries!) 2) Anatomy and Phys by Tortora Textbook of Med Phys by Guyton (I like having both) 3) Clinical Skills book: Bates (I have it, don't like it...), or Mosby's clinical examination book (seems better, but not buying it now), Tally and O'Connor seems to be popular among the residents, I've glanced at it, but it's a bit small.. and also MUST have even if you have either Bates or Mosby's is the UofT Clinical Examination Handbook (25.00 and honestly the best concise clinical exam book, I use it all the time!!) 4) a Pathophys book...Mosby's pathophys is apparently great...I have Robbins Patho Basis of Disease, which I think is quite good. For now, that's it...I'm the queen of books, I buy way TOO many but the one's above will hold you in good stead for unit 1 at least. I'll give you the goods for unit 2 and 3 later!! J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carolyn Posted July 17, 2003 Report Share Posted July 17, 2003 After having bought too many I can tell you my top ten for Mac... 1) Clinical Skills - I like MacLeod's - not well known - I learned about it on elective from some UK students -- I thought it was WAAY better than my Bate's and ended up selling my Bates. It is also much smaller and easily carried around (although not a pocket book like the UofT one) 2) Dorland's medical dictionary - really helpful in first year when people are speaking that medical language and you are trying to translate... 3) A good Anatomy -- this seems to be entirely a matter of preference. I would wait until you get to Mac, borrow a copy of each major one for a week from the library and then decide which works best for you. 4) Physiology -- Many have Tortora and then use online books for more detail -- others go straight to Guyton and sift through some of the irrelevant stuff. I used an old physiology text book from undergrad that I really liked... and then supplemented it with online texts for more detail. 5) Mosby's Manual of Diagnostic and Laboratory Tests... 6) Lilly - For Cardiology - basically a Must have for Unit 2... and potentially helpful in unit 1... 7) Merck Manual -- is nice to have but is now available online. 8) Robbin's -- also important for pathology - but available online on MDConsult 9) I really liked Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine... very few have used it but again all sorts of UK students use it... a moderate overview of all sorts of conditions with pictures, tables etc. 10) Harrison's - more indepth than Davidson's -- but Huge, expensive and available at the library and on CD BEFORE you Spend any money... Check to see what is available ONLINE... there is a lot and there is a big push at Mac to improve the online resources... so hopefully you will be able to save some $$... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Waitin Posted July 19, 2003 Report Share Posted July 19, 2003 Love to get some UofT feedback in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted July 19, 2003 Report Share Posted July 19, 2003 Waitin -- cheech10 gave his (U of T, presumably) feedback at the top of the thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest QM6 Posted July 19, 2003 Report Share Posted July 19, 2003 For Queen's, the short list includes - Bates Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking - Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Moore's Essential Clinical Anatomy - Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy - Robbin's Pathological Basis of Disease You can check out the Guide to textbooks (scroll down to 6.2) to see why! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cheech10 Posted July 19, 2003 Report Share Posted July 19, 2003 Waitin: UofT is not a school where you need a lot of books. There are good library resources, and everything you need to learn/will be tested on is in the syllabus. First year at UofT is busy enough without reading tons of books. Textbooks should be used only to clarify concepts (and even then, rarely), not to learn subjects from. The notable exception is histology, where a good text or atlas (Wheaters or Fiore are my personal choices) can virtually eliminate the need for you to spend time at the microscope. So, get a histology book (or borrow it from the library; you can study histo in a few days), an anatomy atlas (I like Netter's, despite what Taylor says), and a clinical skills book (we get the UofT pocket book free in our O-week kits, use it with the ASCM course website (optional)) and you should be fine. Also get the Functional Neuroanatomy CD. For PBL/general reference: Harrison's online, a medical dictionary of your choice (also online, IIRC), the Merck Manual (online, or buy the home edition for cheap - see Ian's thought in the textbook forum), and google searches. Other than that, it's straight syllabus memorization. And don't buy the books right away: used books abound, new editions come out (not that important, IMO), some tutors prefer certain books, you might prefer certain styles, etc. One other book I liked for physio was the Board Review Series Physiology by Costanzo - short, cheap, just the basics, and good reference for Backx, whose notes can be confusing at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JSS02 Posted July 19, 2003 Report Share Posted July 19, 2003 These are the books I actually used in first year at UWO: Dorland's Pocket Medical Dictionary Anatomy - Netter's and Rohen/Yokochi (for labs) Clinical Skills - Bates Histology - used Wheater's as a reference, but rarely Immunology - Janeway, but just the figures (it's way more detailed that what we covered in class) Microbio - Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple Physiology - Guyton/Hall You can definitely get by with just the anatomy and clinical skills books. And even if you want to use the rest, you don't have to purchase them, as you can get them on loan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Waitin Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 Hey cheech, thanks for the help. Two questions. What IS the functional neuroanatomy cd? And re histology, when you say text or atlas did you mean text or atlas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest McMastergirl Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 I'm a 3rd year student at Mac. I bought a medical dictionary and I must say I've hardly ever used it! Books I couldn't have lived without included -Lilly for Unit 2 (Cardio) - and I've gone back to it in clerkship -Mosby's - always useful for the down and dirty on lab tests - Tortora - I already owned Guyton but I find it way too boring and lacking in pictures - an anatomy book made for medical students (I have Moores) In my opinion buying Harrison's would be a huge waste of money! It is boring and if all you want is to read a one-page summary about a condition, there are much better and more up-to-date sources online Just my 2 cents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cheech10 Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 Waitin - No problem. The functional neuroanatomy cd is a program designed by Dr. Stewart (the lead instructor for Brain and Behaviour, our neuro-everything course) and the department of biomedical communications (I think). It's an interactive neuroanatomy atlas. The key thing is that it includes everything you need to know/will be tested on in the neuroanatomy component, and not too much extra info as you'd find in an ordinary text. It's really useful, and can be found quite inexpensiely . For histology, I meant text or atlas. Most people prefer an atlas, since you get a mini-text in the syllabus. But I think the favourite book was Wheater's, which has some text as well, and is subtitled "A Text and Atlas". Also, there is a histology program on the computers upstairs, designed for an undergrad course but quite useful because it is taught by the same instructor. So any of these resources should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moo Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 i liked stedmans for a medical dictionary. As for physiology, I used Berne and Levy but I hated it... Guyton was much better as a text but if you want things very simplistic try Costanzo... it's a good review book. Also Robbins is helpful for first year PBL, but that is available online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IRNBRUD Posted July 21, 2003 Report Share Posted July 21, 2003 Thanks for your thoughts everyone! Hi ho hi ho...it's off to the bookstore I go!!! :rollin IB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.