Posted by aa-Clinicals on August 20, 2011, 1:43 pm
I'm about to start clinicals, and was wondering if any current 2nd years or graduates can give some advice about the best pocket reference guide to buy. Is the oxford reference guide the best? What about pocket notebook by Urman? Any advice would be much appreciated.
i wrote the publisher and found out there was a lawsuit btw the author and publisher and thats why a new addition hasnt come out. the binding on that book also sucked. even used copies cost 150$ the new mass general book has really thick paper and the book is too big. but the 2002 edition if u pick that book
Re: Pocket reference guide
Posted by AA-C in a week on August 23, 2011, 9:41 pm, in reply to "Pocket reference guide"
Most places won't mind if you bring your own purse/man-bag/satchel into the OR. With that being said I would go ahead and carry with you MorganMikhail and something along the lines of MassGeneral. You WILL have some downtime to do some reading and you WILL need more than a pocket reference to look something up. You will get pimped on more than drug dosages, with things like detailed cardiac physiology or liver function.
This is personal preference but I would recommend that you have a clipboard in the room. You don't have to lug it around everywhere you go, but you will find yourself at times looking for somewhere to chart, especially if you are with a doc who doesn't want you all up in their space. Plus it makes you look more organized when there's not papers all over the place (style points). Once again, with that being said, I would get that ACCRS printout that LJ referenced and tape it on the clipboard. Two birds one stone.
I'm just not a fan of "pocket" stuff for a couple of reasons.
The first being something I was told by a doc when all my pockets were stuffed full with cheatsheets etc. It makes you standout as a student. Its ok to be a student, but having a bunch of information stuffed in your scrubs make you seem unknowledgeable, uncertain, and can make patients uneasy if they see you sifting through your reference book while you go over their med list (neg style points).
Now I'm not saying that's it's ok to pretend that you know everything and act cocky, because let's face it you are (and I'm) a student and we shouldn't and don't know everything.
A good doc once told me, "I don't suspect you to know the answers to everything, but I damn well suspect that you know how to find them...and find them quickly"
I will admit there is one reference card that I carry in my back pocket and that is the ACLS card. Because that is the one situation where you don't have time to go back and look things up. I thought I had ACLS down pretty well until I ran with a resident to a code and drew blanks or second guessed myself. That will humble you up real quick like.
The other reason I don't like carrying all those pocket things is it just weighs down your scrubs and you look sloppy (neg style points). Ok, well I guess this reason really isn't that important.
Three items you should always carry regardless:
1. Stethoscope. You don't want to be caught with your pants down when your attending asks you to listen to a patients lungs in the pre-op and there is no stethoscope within a mile. This happened to me because the doc noticed I didn't have mine and was trying to prove a point. Dick move, yes, but you're a student, get used to it.
2 & 3) A working pen and sharpie. Make your life easy, keep extras in your bag. Some places have pen nazis and yours will come up missing more than once, never leave a good pen left behind. Get used to labeling everything, such as IV bags and lines. Label what IV bag # it is and what time it was hung. Some patients will come down with like 4-5 lines in for a CABG and none are labelled, don't confuse the NTP line with the NEO line! Get out some tape and label those lines and where there are going to. Ex. "NTP Rt IJ" or "NEOsyn L 18G Hand". This is not only for style points but more importantly patient safety. Because when the pressure drops to 60/40 and the sphincter tightens, you don't want to be fumbling around figuring out what line goes where. Pushing the ephedrine into the A-line looks bad on anybody.
Well, sorry for the ranting but I figured I'd share some things that never got shared with me before I went into battle. Bottom line, figure out what works best for you and be prepared and organized. GOOD LUCK!