Looking for a good read.

[Guest cptn med]

Hey guys,

Any good recommended readings (med wise)? You know, something that really stood out to you.

I am having a hard time finding anything at all about ethics, new discoveries etc... anywhere besides the Internet. Any good thoughts, books, articles I can find? Where I live, the bookstores seem pretty dry...I am not ready to resort to nursing text books yet. Although, that might be interesting too.

[Guest cptn med]

Come on guys,

Somebody must read this stuff??? Help.

[Guest Ian Wong]

I'm going to move this out of the McMaster forum into the Interviews forum, as there are some old messages there with good advice on sources for current events, ethics books, and all those sorts of goodies.

 

You can always visit these sites:

 

1) CMAJ

There's lots of cool stuff here; one of the current lead articles argues that universal health coverage does NOT automatically increase consumption

 

2) Medical Post

A very regularly issued newsletter for physicians with all sorts of interesting articles regarding Canadian health care.

 

3) Health section of the Globe and Mail

A new set of health articles each day.

 

There's lots more stuff in the archives, but these are three great places to start, and I promise you won't easily run out of material as you start going through the archives of 1) and 2).

 

Ian

[Guest cptn med]

Thanks Ian,

I know the web is there too, I was just hoping for something really great that I hadn't been exposed to yet. Thanks.

[Guest mydream88]

cptn med,

check the thread in 'medical school interviews' titled: "mock @#$% and premed book club : )". We are trying to start a list of books there, so far we have two! I am going to post a new one there shortly.

 

mydream88:)

[Guest UWOMED2005]

"House of God" is a great book for anyone interested in doing medicine. It's a frank and satirical story based on a real Harvard MD's experiences going through one of the best internship programs in the US in the 1970s.

 

Let me let you in on a secret the other med students are keeping from you. There really is only one trick to the med school interview. The secret to aceing your interview is to be able to recite to the committee the 13 Laws of the House of God:

 

1) GOMERS DON’T DIE.

 

2) GOMERS GO TO GROUND.

 

3) AT A CARDIAC ARREST, THE FIRST PROCEDURE IS TO TAKE YOUR OWN PULSE.

 

4) THE PATIENT IS THE ONE WITH THE DISEASE.

 

5) PLACEMENT COMES FIRST.

 

6) THERE IS NO BODY CAVITY THAT CANNOT BE REACHED WITH A #14 NEEDLE AND A GOOD STRONG ARM.

 

7) AGE + BUN = LASIX DOSE.

 

8) THEY CAN ALWAYS HURT YOU MORE.

 

9) THE ONLY GOOD ADMISSION IS A DEAD ADMISSION.

 

10) IF YOU DON’T TAKE A TEMPERATURE, YOU CAN’T FIND A FEVER.

 

11) SHOW ME A BMS* WHO ONLY TRIPLES MY WORK AND I WILL KISS HIS FEET.

 

12) IF THE RADIOLOGY RESIDENT AND THE BMS* BOTH SEE A LESION ON THE CHEST X-RAY, THERE CAN BE NO LESION THERE.

 

13) THE DELIVERY OF MEDICAL CARE IS TO DO AS MUCH NOTHING AS POSSIBLE.

 

*Medical Student from the "Best Medical School."

 

You see, med school admissions really is a secret club - much like the freemasons or stonecutters. Why do you think so many doctor's kids get into med school? It's because their parents all let thim in on this secret! Recite this list at the start of your interview and the interview committee will be fooled into thinking you were chosen for med school. . . you're in for sure.

[Guest mydream88]

thanks for the tip lol :rollin

 

mydream88

[Guest justanotherpremed]

uwomed2005:

I REALLY don't get this joke... at all.... and I'm hoping that it's a joke :hat :smokin

[Guest coastal79]

Check out Amazon.com or .ca for tonnes of medically related books. I'm reading "Complications: Notes on an Imperfect Science" by Atul Gawande right now-it's definitely interesting. For ethics check out Readings in Biomedical Ethics: A Canadian Focus by Eike-Henner Kluge. He teaches biomedical ethics at UVIC and used to be in charge of ethics for the CMA. It's basically a selection of readings about various topics, but with an emphasis on the Canadian context.

Unfortunately, it is a textbook, so it ain't cheap. cmaj.ca also has an archive where you can find many old articles related to ethics.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Of course my suggesting quoting these laws in an interview is a joke. I just wanted to see if anyone would actually incorporate "THE DELIVERY OF MEDICAL CARE IS TO DO AS MUCH NOTHING AS POSSIBLE" as a theme in their med school interview (obviously not such a great idea.)

 

But the laws are NOT a joke. They are actually cited in "House of God." The scariest thing is, as ridiculous as they might sound to someone without experience in medicine, having done my medicine rotation in clerkship I can see where Samuel Shem coming from when he wrote that stuff.

 

If you want to know more, I'd suggest you read the book. A number of our profs here at UWO have quoted in class, and one even seemed to infer we weren't really med students until we'd read it. . .