Best medical reference books according to redditors
We found 97 Reddit comments discussing the best medical reference books. We ranked the 62 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
12. Essays That Will Get You into Medical School (Essays That Will Get You Into… Series)
2 mentions
![The Color Atlas of Human Anatomy [ Easton Press ]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XO00cAcfL.jpg)
____
Don't know what to study for each rotation? Look at the wiki
In regards to how to study: OnlineMedED is now your Pathoma. UWorld is still UWorld. There is no First Aid for Step 1 for Step 2 so it is made up of a couple of books for each rotation you used / general review books (Step UP, First Aid, master the boards etc.)
The Match is really scary? Buy The Successful Match for a decent run down of the entire process etc. and tips of how to build an application
ERAS is still really scary? Check out these example applications.. start at like pg 29 unless a Pritzker student then ^read ^^it ^^^all ^^^^?
Worried about H+Ps? Get the Perfect H+P book(or download and print a bunch of decent looking templates)
Need more templates etc?? Check out Medfools! for more!!
I recommend compiling a document with all interesting patient encounters, presentations you did on the rotation, notable things you accomplished on the rotation. Then when it comes time for your Letter writer to compose your LOR send them that information. Then they can have anecdotes to go off and write in your letter, this will be much more powerful than a generic LOR. This book goes into much more detail about this and I recommend reading the chapter on LORs https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Match-2017-Success-Residency/dp/1937978079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522800836&sr=8-1&keywords=residency+match
You should know the basics of healthcare, but to be honest, I was never asked a single question about healthcare, and I've only asked a healthcare-related question once, and it was as a follow-up to something that the candidate had said.
My advice is to work on commonly asked interview questions (which you can easily obtain from Google). It's also very helpful to find people to practice with in person and have them give you feedback.
Also, I don't know how helpful this would be for you, but I read this book when I was interviewing. Most of the content was stuff that I already knew, but there were a couple of tips that I found to be particularly helpful.
I bought this to use for inspiration. I would be cautious though--it can be tough to come up with an original idea if you've been reading examples.
It's worth it!
This is also worth it too
But you only need one.
I bought The Medical School Interview: Secrets and a System for Success last year and it seemed to be pretty helpful in my preparation.
Fantastic score! As far as getting into an elite IM program, I would definitely start by identifying a mentor at your home IM program; they'll be better able to guide you. And with a 260 Step, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help you achieve your career goals.
Also, be on the lookout for research projects that you can help out with, be it case reports or systemic reviews.
Otherwise, the usual advice applies: do well on your rotations, study hard for each shelf, and do well with CK.
Also, buy a copy of The Successful Match. It has useful advice for obtaining letters of rec, what to write in your personal statement, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Match-2017-Success-Residency/dp/1937978079
Movie tickets for date nights
Bifl backpack
Book: Med School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Medical School Experience: By Students, for Students https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312330081/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_L2ZCAbPMBN2RK
Cookbook or cooking class
Scrubs
More practical: Darn Tough Socks. These are the best socks with a guarantee.
I’d browse r/bifl for ideas
So I read a couple of books because even though I've interviewed for jobs, I realized I had no idea what adcoms on a med school were looking for. Link Here: https://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Interview-Strategies-Admissions/dp/193797801X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3BM4D155KR9XWQ3TCT0A
That got me in the right frame of mind. There is a MMI version too. After that, I practiced the more common 8 questions aloud and got them within 2 minutes time frame. Did some mock interviews. I usually over research and read on ethics too. Haven't been rejected or waitlisted post II yet.
I recommend Barron's Essays That Will Get You into Medical School. Very helpful guide and they give you a dozen or so essays written by past applicants.
The Successful Match has some good stuff. Maybe see if you can borrow one from a friend or Amazon prime that shiz.
I searched my library for "medical school interview" and perused this book which was pretty helpful.
Yup. Adcoms tell us constantly that if they invite you for an interview, they believe you could do well at their program.
Of course I wasn't there to see you interview, but there's always the possibility that you messed up some of the important questions. At the same time, it's 100% possible you did just fine at the interview, but there were people that the adcom liked little better. Or the adcom thought you were a good candidate but ultimately not a good fit for the class. Who knows.
I highly suggest you get this book. It's geared towards med school admissions, but basically you can apply everything it says to PA schools. There's a section that lists the most common interview questions by category and provides the "right" answer. EVERY interview question I got was in this book. (Personally I don't think the popular "How To "Ace" The Physician Assistant School Interview" by Andrew Rodican is very good.)
I realize some may think my advice is overkill, but I'm just going to put it out there. If you can do all of this, and aren't some socially awkward/antisocial person, you will ace your interview:
A lot of people poo-poo so much preparation for interviews by saying stuff like... "you'll sound rehearsed" or "stop worrying so much and be yourself." Basically call you out for being a try-hard. Buuut idgaf because it worked for me.
I used this [book] (https://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Mini-Interview-Mind-Advisor/dp/1628908637/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480737225&sr=8-2&keywords=multiple+mini+interview) to prepare for MMIs. You can also just find scenarios online. Get with a friend and practice
I used this book to get a good idea of what med school personal statements look like. The ones in the book aren't exactly groundbreaking (in fact, a lot are pretty cliche), but it was still useful to at least have that framework to look at.
Read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Essays-That-Will-Medical-School/dp/0764142275/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1323586904&sr=1-1-catcorr
Basically, the best personal statements read like a story.
Ottawa Anesthesia Primer: https://www.amazon.com/Ottawa-Anesthesia-Primer-Patrick-Sullivan/dp/0991800907
If you are looking for a book to maybe help you out with preping for the interview they I could recommend you Medical School Interview Secrets to Success. Its a really small book and you can finish it in like one sitting, but I found it super helpful in getting your brain in the interview mentality. It gives you a bit of homework too as a form of prep. Its not super groundbreaking or anything, but it is very helpful for compartmentalizing what you need to cover over an interview. I'm 3 for 3 right now on interviews and acceptances, and I do attribute it to this book.
I put the amazon link here.
https://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Interview-Secrets-Success/dp/097795594X
btw, i dont make any money from recommending this, it was honestly a good book
This book is good for focused interview prep and strategy
This book is good for common sense interview skills
I am using both of these books myself, and I like them a lot. They really only deal with traditional interview formats however. No books for group interviews or MMI format.
This is the Physician's Desk Reference, a summary of every major drug (not all drugs, just the more than a thousand popular ones) that was on the market in the US four years ago. Your doctor probably has a copy. There's no way they memorized all 3000 pages of that book. I guess they could have a pharmacy in the office, but there's a lot of doctors and they don't all need to maintain their own private pharmacy.
"The Successful Match" goes through all of this by specialty plus just general app info.
https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Match-2017-Success-Residency/dp/1937978079
OP you’re not alone. I’m also 26, living at home, and an aspiring nurse. I was surprised to find this post because my semester just started and have been 100% unmotivated as well.
Just out of curiosity, what entrance exam are you taking? I took the TEAs last year and it was honestly very over-hyped. I’d be happy to give you some tips and extra resources on that if needed (PM me)
Also, you are not a mess. You’re a human being. I understand the pressures of not being on your own two feet yet at this age, but keep in mind that so many nurses don’t begin their careers until their 40’s. You’re doing just fine. The idea of being in nursing school and out of pre-reqs was the fire under my ass while studying for the TEAs. I stopped seeing it as an option because I had so much to lose by failing. You just need to take this one step at a time, just like you have been. And one day you’ll wake up and realize it’s NCLEX day and you’ve made it.
If you need motivating reading material, read these:
https://www.amazon.com/Nursing-School-Thrive-Guide-Maureen-ebook/dp/B00M389ZX0
https://www.google.com/search?q=becoming%20nursey&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
http://a.co/gYZ2ZnE
Also, check the /r/StudentNurse page, there’s always info about entrance exams.
If you still feel truly hopeless about this, listen to me: After you pass this entrance exam, you’ll be in a cohort with people who want the same life as you. You’ll be totally submerged in nursing culture and feel inspired every day. Once you start clinical, you’ll get a taste of how it feels to impact a patient’s life and won’t want to lose that feeling. Ever.
It won’t get easier, but you will have MUCH more support around you. I know this exam seems super impossible, but its not - because tbh, you sound just like me and if i did it so can you.
[this book](http://www.amazon.com/Isersons-Getting-Into-Residency-Students/dp/1883620368/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409576577&sr=8-1&keywords=iserson%27s+residency
)
I have had the opportunity to sit on both my med school admissions committee and a couple of my residency rank list meetings and the biggest thing that it always boils down to is 1) Don't be a douche...seriously. You can have a 45 MCAT and have set up an HIV shelter in a 3rd world country, but if you're a douche nobody is going to want to work with you. 2) Common sense-that book is a pretty good resource (I used it for both med school and residency) 3) don't lie 4) It's all a game... if you show interest, they will show interest back. If you try too hard-they'll see right through it.
http://www.amazon.com/Med-School-Confidential-Complete-Experience/dp/0312330081
You've got plenty of time to bring up you grades, don't worry. In, addition showing a positive trend overall is very powerful so as long as you begin to improve from this point medical schools will notice. Do you have any ECs? With the strong possibility that your GPA won't be stellar you are most likely going to want to have very strong experiences, (shadowing, volunteering, research, etc.) and crush the MCAT. Since you're so young, here is a link to a great book which really helped me to develop a competitive application and earn acceptance. You may also want to check out the timeline, I pretty much based my whole undergrad off of this.
Book:https://www.amazon.com/Med-Students-Guide-Getting-application-ebook/dp/B07BD45JTN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521161058&sr=8-1&keywords=a+med+students+guide+to+getting+in
Timeline: https://masteringmedicaleducation.wordpress.com/sample-timeline/
Brown and Bracken. I've never heard of that other one, which is very sneakily entitled, "Step 1 ^^^^Preparation Secrets."
Well, I guess that's not a very good suggest for a gift for her then, is it? Lol :)
If she likes human anatomy, why don't you get her a Netter's Anatomy book? These are the standard illustrated texts that medical students and practicing physicians use all over the world.
I've even seen some beautiful leather bound and gold-embossed editions like this one.
Frank Netter also did specialized anatomy books for various organ systems, including the nervous system like this.
I am a person who likes to learn from other people's mistakes and successes. For this reason, I find books that describe what other people did extremely helpful. Here are some that really helped me:
First Aid for the Match
Iserson's Getting Into Residency
This was a great book to prepare for MMIs:
https://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Mini-Interview-Mind-Advisor/dp/1628908637/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1466318494&sr=8-2&keywords=multiple+mini+interview
> Other drugs to NOT mix with Cipro, include antinflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen and anti-diarrhea meds. He prescribed me a squits med.
BTW... my personal "standard practice" is that I NEVER, EVER take any medication without looking up the DETAILED info on it -- something that is EASY to do now with the internet -- but which I was doing way back in the 1980's (long before the internet ) initially by visiting the library to use & then later buying my own "PDR: Physician Desk Reference" guide to meds... which includes info not only on what "side effects" are known, but also what contraindations exist (drug interactions, etc) AND what "supervision/testing" is SUPPOSED to be done (regardless of side effect symptom complaints) for people ON certain medications.
And then of course it is a "judgement call" ON MY PART as to whether I will take on the risk... whether the medication's (potential) positives are worth the (possibility) of the negatives.
---
>I'd far rather he'd said "Let me just Google this a minute" and bloody checked first.
Well thing of it is you cannot trust someone else to do that -- you really DO have to do it yourself -- after all, who has MORE at stake in your health?
To the doc, you are just patient number #4,879... and there is (in some ways of understandable "necessity"*) a sort of ingrained "you win some, you lose some" indifference to the fate of patients.
Problem is that "indifference" -- while some level of it is necessary (again *) -- can easily combine with other priorities (ego, sloppiness, laziness, incompetence, even money, etc) such that it becomes either negligent or outright harmful. (In fact MOST of the history of "medicine" is rife with doctors doing more harm than good... and it is a modern "arrogance" to believe THAT state of things has been entirely changed, or that the potential for "harm" has been entirely "done away with"; because it hasn't, it most definitely hasn't.)
-
* That is to say, regardless of their actual skill -- or their "ego-mania" (or alternately their "humility" -- doctors are NOT "all-powerful"... it is inevitable that they WILL "lose" patients (i.e. people get sick/injured and SOME of them will die).
Doctors CANNOT always prevent that, in fact for the most part, in the lion's share of cases whether a patient "recovers" is MORE dependent upon the patients' own body: immune system & overall health; than it is on anything the doctor does or does not do; at best some intervention or treatment assists the body, at worst it harms/kills, and very often the effect is largely irrelevant (i.e. the patient would have recovered -- or died -- regardless).
Moreover, doctors CANNOT become so "invested" in the health of any particular patient that they become "devastated" by the person's sickness/death -- if and when they do so -- well, they effectively destroy their own ability to function (and THAT doesn't help anyone either).
Try a few different techniques to see what works best for you. Everybody is a little different. Some people learn very well by teaching - even if it's to an inanimate object like a television or the wall. I think it's more effective teaching it to a human, because to make them understand, you need teach them the basics needed to understand that subject matter. (You may be tempted to skip that step if your "student" is a wall.)
The teaching process forces you to rethink the concept in your head, and to imagine different ways of explaining it, like thinking up analogies.
I read this book. His method involves making notes - that is, handwriting or typing all the information he needs to know. This not only condenses notes to make future review easier, but in the process of paraphrasing and summarizing the material, you are actively thinking about it - describing it in your own words, or drawing diagrams to summarize mechanisms, etc. THAT is the main reason you want to make notes - to force yourself to think about the material. Getting condensed notes from someone greatly diminishes the learning process. Yes, you have condensed notes, but you skipped the most important part, which was forcing yourself to think of the material in a way other than passively staring at the textbook or handouts given to you in class.
Making notes is very time consuming, but the advantage is that you know the material better, and reviewing later on is much faster. If you have to study from those notes years down the line, you will understand it easier since you wrote it, and since you made it concise.
For me, being flexible on the hour-to-hour schedule and instead focusing on my daily task list worked best, especially for research life. The American Physician Scientist Association website has a series called "Day in the Life" which you might find interesting. For medical school, this book "How to Study in Medical School" offers some tips on how to structure your day and might give you insight into what the medical school schedule might look like.
Here is how my schedule has been year-by-year (we do MS1-3, grad school, MS4).
During MS1 and MS2: M-F classes 8-12n (either in class or streaming videos), lunch, mandatory activities like labs, standardized patient activities, other special sessions in the afternoon 1-5p, studying all evening. Variably working out, hanging out, or playing video games for breaks. I'd study all weekend for as long as I had motivation (~6-7hrs), and socialized for breaks. I did not participate in any research during these years.
MS3 schedule depends completely upon what rotation you are on. Outpatient is 5 days a week, inpatient is 6. You can assume at least 8-12 hours of your day (usually within a 6a-6p window) are spent on clinical duties, and another 2-3 on studying for the rotation and shelves. I prioritized working out as soon as I got home before studying as it provided a lot of stress relief. I got involved in a clinical research project which worked on during the weekends.
Summer lab rotations between MS0-MS1, MS1-MS2, and GS1 (where I am currently): I go to lab at 8a, work on experiments until seminars/classes/meetings happen around 12n, and then stay in lab until the tasks I set for myself are done (normally 6-7p). I write, work out, and hang out in the evenings.
Hope that helps!
The Ottawa Anaesthesia Primer is a great book, lots of detail and relatively cheap. Would definitely recommend picking up at least the Kindle version.
woah... reapplicant?
I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Interview-Secrets-Success/dp/0977955907
https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Analysis-Reasoning-Skills-Review/dp/0804125031
I have the newer one it has like MRI scans on the cover but they are similar I think.
Is it the old or new workbook? Can you post a pic? I have this one and want to make sure it's not the same. https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Analysis-Reasoning-Skills-Review/dp/0804125031
I'll have to talk to my pre-med advisor about that move first! Not sure if there are any technicalities involved. In the meantime, I advise you to look at Barron's Essays That Get You Into Medical School. Short, concise, and helpful read. Definitely available at your local Barnes and Noble or off of Amazon here!
https://www.amazon.com/USMLE-Step-2-Secrets-5e/dp/0323496164/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7VHSE3CKX4Z7817KNZ7H&dpID=51ihUiE35mL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail