MappedCon presented by Blueprint Test Prep 2024 is this Friday, October 26, 925 Eastern. I'm starting the day in my track, the pre-med track, planting the seed of your personal statement. We have three tracks going all day long and a couple hours of amazing exhibitors where you can learn more about their programs. Again, MappedCon presented by Blueprint Test Prep, October 26, register for free. It's a virtual event and all the sessions will be up after. So even if you can't make it live, go register and get access to the sessions. Go to MappedCon.com right now, register. That's M-A-P-P-D-C-O-N.com. If you're applying to medical school in 2022 to start medical school in 2023, join me Wednesday or Thursday, Wednesday night at 9.30 p.m. Eastern or Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern at premedworkshop.com. Go register today. I'm going to show you how to tell your story in your application. Again, that's premedworkshop.com. If you are applying to medical school in 2022, be there or B-square. The Medical School HQ podcast, episode 57. Welcome back to the Medical School HQ podcast. This is the place to learn how to excel as a premed student, learn what it takes to survive medical school, and turn your dreams of becoming a physician into reality. We're bringing you the most unbiased, honest, and accurate information available online today. Folks, my name is Ryan Gray. As always, I will be your host today with my lovely co-host, Alison. Hello, everybody, and happy holidays. So this episode is coming out on Christmas. So we thought we'd play a little jingle bells for you guys. Whatever you celebrate out there, we hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. So today we're going to talk about gifts, not really gifts for premeds, but resources that premeds medical students and even residents may use. We thought it'd be fun to talk about what a premed student might want under a tree, or what a medical student might want on one of the days of Hanukkah. So we went through and talked about everything that we used as premeds and medical students and reached out to a lot of other resources to see what people are using and what people want. So we'll go through that list. There's a ton of stuff. Don't feel like you have to write it all down while you're listening, especially if you're driving. We'll have it all in the show notes for you as well as a lot of other stuff in the show notes because we're not going to cover everything that we wrote down. So before we get started with that, I want to give thanks to the few people that left us five star ratings and reviews. And I think people want me to pronounce names funny. So this one user name is Y-V-V-V-V-V-F-S-G-H. How would you pronounce that, Allison? I have no idea. Exactly. So whoever left it, thank you. You said we are awesome. Thank you. Great. It says, "Great information and detailed interviews. They must for all premeds out there." So thank you for that. Our view pronounced that. And then we got one from Hasselhoff 20, who says, "Great for any med applicant or student." And one from Len Santos, who says, "I hope to one day put on my white coat with my name stitched and followed by M-D-R-D-O. And when I do, I will have Dr. Gray and the entire med school HQ team to thank." That's awesome. So Len Santos, you got the review of the day. Thank you all. Thank you for those. If you want to leave us a review and a rating, whatever that review and rating may be, you can go to medicalschoolhq.net/itunes. And we will greatly appreciate it. That can be your Christmas/holiday gift to us. So let's go ahead and jump into the content for today and talk about premeds first. I think we'll talk about the books. We get a lot of people come to our site because we do have a post already about books for premeds. And we'll cover a couple of those books here today. And let's start with a well-known author who has written many books. He's a surgeon, a tool Gawande. He's written better. He's written complicated. Complications. Complications, yeah. It's complicated. Complications. And my favorite, a checklist manifesto. So why don't you tell us a little bit about some of those books? So a tool Gawande has been writing for quite a few years now. And as Ryan said, he's a practicing surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. And his books are a different take. There are a lot of books out there, some of which we'll share with you, which are more sort of autobiographical accounts of people's experiences in medicine. His books are really more about problems that he sees in healthcare and in the practice of medicine and surgery today and what can be done to make these problems better. So complications was the first one that I read. And it's a really interesting look. He gives the reader a bunch of different cases, difficult cases that he encountered as a surgeon, and the different errors that occurred in the care of those patients. And then he talks about how can we reduce those errors. And better than in his next book, Better, he goes on to talk about other issues in healthcare in general, lawsuits, insurance. So a lot of his books are really geared toward how do we make the practice of medicine better. So I think as a premed out there, it's a great view into medicine and how someone who's currently practicing is trying to identify what the issues are and how to make those better. Yeah, and a checklist manifesto mentioned really quick, I think is important for premeds and medical students to read because it starts to get you in that mindset of using checklist. And I think for practicing physicians out there today, and we'll have a link to an M, I think it was an NPR article about checklists and how physicians are struggling with checklists because they think it's putting restraints on them. And when it's really not, and the checklist manifesto goes over the history of checklists and checklists came about in the aviation industry, which I'm obviously as a flight surgeon in the Air Force, I love aviation. And so the first four engine aircraft, the B 17, had a lot of problems before checklists were created because pilots couldn't remember everything to do with four different engines. And if you want to extrapolate that into an operating room, how is how is a surgeon supposed to remember everything that's supposed to go on inside a human body? I think the human body is a little bit more complicated than an aircraft sitting in a flight deck on an aircraft. So great book gets you thinking. Yeah, he's a fabulous writer. So the next book, The Intern Blues. So this is a book that catalogs the experiences of several pediatric interns who talk about what life is like as an intern. So for pre-medical students out there, it can be a little bit jarring because you're seeing what life is like in that first year as a doctor, which is one of the hardest years that you have. But I think it's a nice look into what the challenges are as an intern and what life can be like. Yeah, that was a good book. I read that one as well. Let's talk about white coat. White coat was one of my very favorite book still is to this day, I think. When I was a pre-med, I couldn't put it down. It was really exciting because it's a book that takes you through a physician's experience when she was a medical student. She actually went to Harvard and it takes you through every year of medical school and her anatomy class. And then when she gets into her third year, it takes you through each of her rotations. And it's autobiographical. She shares her fears, her triumphs, her friendships. She met her husband also in medical school. So it was just a wonderful journey to read about. And I loved it. So I recommend that to everybody out there too. We also have on here the House of God, which is a classic. And it's a very different book. It was published way back in 1978. I think it still is a great read for any pre-medical student or medical student out there. I actually read it right before I started my internship, which was kind of a funny time to read it. It's by an author by the name of Dr. Samuel Shem. And he takes us on this journey into the year of his internship. And it's pretty graphic, which is something I did not know about it beforehand. There's a lot that goes on in his internship in the hospital that is probably very unrealistic, at least from what Ryan and I saw being interns and residents. There's a lot of sex. There's a lot of just really graphic stuff because he's, as he's going through this very difficult time in his life, he's lusting after all these nurses that are around him and having all these escapades. And it's a little bit crazy, but he has, he makes friends with some of his co- interns and they share a lot of really difficult experiences together, some of which are really just tragic. And so I wouldn't say it's the most realistic view of what intern life is like, but it's just a great story. And some of it ultimately is probably realistic in a certain sense. So it's a great book. Most modern hospital dramas are loosely based on this book. Right. If you think of Grey's Anatomy and Nutscrubs, but Grey's Anatomy is the biggest one that comes to mind that is based on this book. Absolutely. And he actually wrote a second book after the House of God, which was about more of his experiences as a psychiatrist going forward. So that's something that you can also look into if you're interested. Yeah. And then you have written down, the spirit catches you and you fall down. This is a wonderful book. I read this book actually as part of a course that I took in my fourth year of medical school. So I read this quite a bit later. However, I think it's a book that for anyone, whether you're in healthcare actually or not, it's a book about a little girl who is from Laos, she and her family were refugees and they're part of the Haman community. And the child has severe epilepsy and she's living in California and right near a small county hospital. And it's all about the struggle between the patient and her family and the doctors and nurses who are trying to take care of her. And the lack of communication, the lack of understanding between their cultures really is a huge problem in the care of this child. They can't get to understand each other. And she also has a terrible disease. She has really refractory epilepsy. But it just, it highlights how important cultural understanding is, diversity, appreciation of diversity, and how when there's a lack of that, it can just be tragic for a patient. So it's a really, it's a very sad story, but it's a wonderful story and really important in terms of recognizing cultivating your own appreciation for diversity. Yeah. So those are a couple great, I wouldn't say fun books to read. Oh, I think they're really fun. Well, they're books to read to give you a little bit of insight into practicing medicine, which as a pre-med, you should soak up as much as you can. I think it's also just fun because when you're in the pre-med era and you're doing organic chemistry and you're taking your MCAT practice tests, you're not really immersed in what you're going to be doing ultimately. And so I found these as just such a wonderful way to escape into that place that I wanted to be. So they're just, they're really exciting, I think. Yeah. There's obviously a couple other ones that I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of our more recent guests on the show. Alexa Miesis that wrote The Heartbeat of Success and Dr. Sujay Consagra that wrote Everything I Learned in Medical School. Those were a couple good books that we'll have on the list as well. We have several more books that we'll put in the show notes which you can get at medicalschoolhq.net/57 as in episode 57. One other thing I'll mention to you all, if you're tired of reading because all you do is read and study nowadays as a pre-med, if you're looking for a movie to see over the holidays, there are just a couple that come to mind. There are actually quite a few movies that have to do with medicine out there but there are two that I really enjoyed. One is Patch Adams which is about an older physician or an older man who goes, he's not that old but he's not the traditional 20-something-year-old student. He goes back into a career in medicine and he's very alternative, non-conformist and he's really all about humor and it's a wonderful story about how he tries to inject his own personality and his sense of humor into learning, the training that he undergoes as a physician when he's in medical school. It's a great story. Yeah, it is a true story. The other one is Gross Anatomy which was back in 1989, 1989, that movie came out and it's about a first-year medical student and his experiences in the Gross Anatomy Lab and he has his lab partner who he falls in love with and it's just a fun story. Those are two really great movies that you can put your feet up on the couch and watch. Those are fun movies that there was another movie that I was going to mention, the PBS Doctors Diaries which is, I think it's a little sad because it takes you through Harvard medical students and it follows them through their training and then it has follow-up, I think it's like 10 or 20 years later and I think they're like all divorced and there's a lot of issues but it's a great look again into what life is like as a physician. So that's another good one too. So watch during the holidays if you have some free time. So those are some books. We have a couple other books on here that are kind of required reading while you're going through the process and trying to figure out what medical schools you want to go to. The AAMC has the MSAR, the medical school application requirements I believe. Rather the medical school admissions requirements and the ACOM, the osteopathic schools have what's called the college information book, the CIB. And those two resources kind of give you the nitty gritty on every medical school that participates and you can see MCAT scores, you can see breakdown of their students, you can see required courses and you get a good look at each medical school and it helps you do the research while you're going through the process and picking schools to go to because ultimately you don't want to apply to all of them because that's way too expensive. That would break the bank. The average is 14 or 15 schools. It seems to be every year that students apply to. So choose wisely those 14 or 15 if you're going to apply to that many and hopefully will increase your chances of getting into medical school. Absolutely. So in general for any pre-med out there, one of the things that Ryan and I talk a lot about is the importance of gaining clinical experience before you apply to medical school. A, so that you can really get to know for yourself why is it that I want to be a doctor, why do I want to do this more than anything else in the world? And also so that you can then share that with the admissions committee, both in your personal statement and also when you interview with them hopefully. They want to know why do you want to be a doctor? Can you show that you have had experience with a physician, with other health care practitioners so that you know this is for you and you have a real sense of what doctors are doing on a day-to-day basis? So with that said, one great way to keep track of your clinical experiences as you go through them is by writing them down. And yes, you'll probably remember forever some of the really key experiences that changed your thinking that really made you want to become a doctor. But it's really helpful if you months, months later when you're sitting down and actually writing out your personal statement and reflecting back on these experiences, also those 15 key experiences that you have that is on that application. It's really helpful if you've written down even just a few notes here and there about what really surprised you, what challenged you, what experiences you'll never forget as you go through these different clinical experiences, shadowing, observing, volunteering, whatever you may be doing. So keep a notebook if you can. And it can be a tiny little thing that you throw in your pocket and you just take it out every now and then and just jot a few notes down. Yes, that is a great idea that or iPhone apps or whatever you're using these days. You can. I think it's a lot quicker to just jot down something with a pen and paper. But yes, for those of you who just like to be with the smartphone, you can do that too. All right. So we have some more books on here and the MCAT, that famous four-letter word. The MCAT, some students choose to prepare for the MCAT on their own. Some students choose to take a course like Princeton or the Princeton Review or Kaplan or M prep or many of the other ones out there. So there are several MCAT books out there that are good. Kaplan has them, the Princeton Review has them. Barron's has a good Princeton, a MCAT book that people like and exam crackers is another big one that people like, especially for the verbal section. So if you're planning on going it alone, there are books out there to help you along the way, as well as practice tests, which are the ultimate guide to studying for the MCAT. And for the MCAT practice tests, I actually have a list of some good ones and bad ones. And I'll go over the AAAMC ones specifically. And I got this information from a top Princeton Review instructor who's a good friend now, I think. So he says the AAAMC number nine and number 11 are the most realistic, the most realistic tests out there. So if you're taking the AAAMC tests, you should take nine and 11 within a couple of weeks of your real MCAT. And he's saying that your score should be a couple points plus or minus what you're scoring on these two practice tests. He says the AAAMC number 10 is a great test, but the scaling is off. It's much harder than the real one. So don't. Don't despair. Don't despair if you're getting lower than you normally do for number 10. And then numbers three, four, and five, he says don't offer any value. Don't take them. They're too easy. So that's kind of interesting. Yeah. And that's what he told us about the AAAMCs test. He did give us some more information on some other ones, but those are the ones we'll cover here today. And Kaplan and Princeton Review and whatever other board prep, or not board prep, sorry, but MCAT prep, of course you're taking. They'll give you some books for free. They'll give you practice tests, not for free, but as part of when you sign up. And some people have told us that some of those tests, those practice tests can be harder or easier than the real thing, usually harder. So also something to just keep in mind. But the rule of thumb is always as taking as many practice tests as you can before the real thing. Yeah, about, I say five, six, seven of them. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And again, I'll quickly mention the best thing about the practice test is the review afterwards. Yes. Not just getting through the test. Right. Go over all your answers, why you made the mistakes you did. You can make a little Excel spreadsheet to really go through and say, these were dumb mistakes I made. These were because I didn't know the content. This I just didn't spend enough time on whatever it was. Take that time. It's worth it. No. All right. So I think that covers pre-med students. Yeah. Let's talk about medical students. All right. So resources in your first and second years of medical school. So we'll break this down into the first and second years and the third and fourth years. For some medical schools out there, they are doing sort of a more combined process where you're getting some clinical exposure very, very early on. But the classic traditional teaching is still that you do the first two years, primarily in the classroom, the second two years on the wards. So we're going to break it down like that. So for the first and second years, one of the great things that happens after usually for many students, shortly after you start medical school is you get your white coat. And this is a very important resource to have as a first and second year. You may not yet be on the wards. However, you will oftentimes be with a preceptor. You'll go to a clinic once a month or a couple of times a month, or you will be in your physical diagnosis class learning how to do all sorts of exams. And so you need your white coat. And there's a great, fun white coat ceremony that a lot of us go through where they actually have, they give you, they present you with your white coat and you put it on for the first time. And it's awesome. And your parents and significant others and relatives can come and picture taking. And it's a great time. But the white coat is something that the first day you get it, you're going to keep that with you all throughout medical school. And so it's something that you want to have with you even during those first two years. Yeah. And then once you have the white coat, then you start filling it with loads of crap. Right. And especially in third and fourth year, those pockets become so dirty and worn because you're just shoving stuff in there. But the first two years, you don't need your white coat every day. So we're going to talk to you about things that you'll need on a daily basis as you're as you're studying and going to class. So Ryan, what is one of the most important things to have as a first and second year student? Lots of paper and lots of pens. Yes. Because you're taking lots of notes. Absolutely. So some people like highlighters, you need pen and paper no matter what. Some students do take notes on the computer. I think that it's probably better for your brain if you write it down. I'm just going to be... You can do what I try to do. I keep trying to get into it as digital writing on an iPad. Yes. Ryan would bring a tablet to class. So he would write down like as though it was a pen and paper. I think... And actually, there are some programs that will now let you put that automatically into a word file and convert it. And it's all fancy. I'm much more of the classic pen and paper notebooks. Just make sure you're organized. Treat color. So hit up staples or office max or whatever. You're going to need lots and lots of notebooks, paper pens, all that stuff. And you will need a computer as well because a lot of... It's important to know that a lot of teaching nowadays in medical schools is online and you may have courses you have to take or study preps, things that you'll need for. So the ultimate question and this is a very important question. If you're going to buy a notebook and you're writing to Santa Claus, this is what I want under my tree. Wide-ruled or college-ruled? Oh, definitely college-ruled. Oh, God. I don't even know why they make wide-ruled paper, honestly. I couldn't stand it. Couldn't ever. Still never buy it. All right. So you also... And you really can't wrap this and put it under a tree. But as a medical student, you need somebody... And depending on your study habits, you need somebody to study with, typically. And it's more not somebody that you're going to sit there and talk with the whole time as a study buddy, but somebody that's going to keep you accountable. Absolutely. And that's what Allison did for me during medical school was she kept me accountable. She would wake me up every five minutes when I'd fall asleep and she would make sure I showed up to study every day. Well, thank you, Ryan. I appreciate that. Yeah. And so it's important to have an accountability partner. Yeah. They also will give you moral support. So when you're really tired and it's your 50 millionth day in a row with the library, you have some company somebody to sit there with. And like Ryan said, you don't have to talk to that person. It's just someone to keep you company. Could you not have a study buddy and fly through medical school and be crazy successful, of course. But some people just find that it's nice to have a buddy to help you and keep you motivated along the way. In fact, it is another thing to be aware of if you meet someone and you want to study with them and then you find that you're talking all the time, that's probably not going to be your best study buddy because you want to be able to focus. So good with with a good study buddy, along with that comes a good study environment. You want to have a place where you're going to be able to focus, block out all the distractions, the Facebook, Twitter, you name it, news articles, whatever is going to distract you, whether maybe it's even your computer, you want a place where you can really just drown out all that noise and focus and be aware that listening to really loud music may distract you, people at the coffee shop where you are may distract you. So find what works for you wherever you go to medical school, find what works for you. All right. So something else, a minor thing that is important that you'll learn pretty quickly is bring a change of clothes to the anatomy lab. Yeah, it kind of stinks in there. It stinks, just bring a change of clothes. We don't, we don't really need to talk about that a lot. Then, then we have textbooks and other books for medical students. And the, the classic book that every medical student loves and talks about is netters. And I think every medical school, if they don't use netters, they should. It's the, the classic anatomy book. Yeah, it's an atlas with loads of pictures and it's something you, it's like your Bible in your first year. Yeah. And then during second year, there's a pathology book called Robins, which is another huge one, literally huge. Yeah, we took notes on the whole darn book, cover to cover. Yeah. And so those are a couple of great textbooks that you will be using. During medical school, if you are pre-med now and you want to get one early and start learning, go ahead. And every medical school may vary a little bit. You may have other books, obviously, but, but those are some pretty common ones. Yeah. And then as a medical student, we have, I wouldn't call them CliffsNotes, but they have review guides. And there are a couple different companies that do review guides. And they, they're all a little bit different. And some students like one version and some students like another. And so they have the, the BRS guide, they have high yield, and then they have the rapid review books. So those are all little study aids that kind of help you as adjuncts too. Yeah, there's, they're really, they're very high yield information so that you can sit there and, and go through and have some bulleted, more bulleted notes to go off of. Yeah. And everybody is sort of particular. I personally really liked the BRS, which is board review series books. Some people swore by high yield. So different things. And then the other very important kind of probably number one tip for first and second years is the first aid for step one or level one, whatever you're taking if you're an osteopathic student. But the first aid for step one book for allopathic students, I think one of the biggest tips that doctors are friends and other people that are actually in the academy now talking about it, they say, what did, what do you wish you would have known starting medical school? And they all, a few of them say, I wish I would have known to buy step one, the first aid, step one, when I first started medical school. So I knew what was important and what wasn't. And I, I don't agree with teaching specifically for a test or learning specifically for a test, but the having the book and going through it while you're going through your classes kind of helps narrow the path a little bit for you. Yeah, it'll help train your brain. And what exactly is that high yield information that you're going to be asked again on that really important test? All right. Now let's get into some fun stuff. Now this is a lot of stuff that you can ask for, for Hanukkah Harry or Santa Claus to bring you for, for a present. And that's third and fourth year of medical school. This is what you can fill your pockets with, your white coat pockets with. The first one that came to my mind was the Maxwell, the quick reference series or guide. It's a little book and I don't even know how big it is, a couple inches by a couple inches. This tiny and it has different colored pages and it shows you how to write a soap note, how to write a transfer note, how to write admission note. It's, it's, has a lot of good kind of cheat, cheat material on there. It shows you how to write shorthand lab values. I found that important first learning how to write shorthand lab values. And a lot of other great information has a little ruler in there. Yeah, it tells you normal lab values, just all the key little important stuff, especially when you're first starting out and you're taking a history and physical on the wards for the first time. It's helpful to just have it written down what are the key things you need to be asking, the order of the note, your history, present illness, past medical history, etc, etc. And then another huge one that's important that I don't know, it'd be interesting to go, go back out on the wards now and see if medical students are using a, the paper book or if they're using apps on their phone. But pharmacopia is, was the, the bible for medical students and attendings. It's a little tiny pocket book. They have a small one and they have a big one and it goes through common doses for different medications and if it's safe for pregnancy or safe for breastfeeding or a bunch of other stuff, but it's kind of a little pharmacy bible. Absolutely. And there are some other pocket books that people carry around. So pocket medicine, which is the Mass General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine is a great one, very, very high yield information that you need on different topics in internal medicine. But you could really use that book for anything. I mean, it's, it has topics in a lot of different realms in medicine and surgery too. The Washington manual is another one. And also there's a great guide just for antibiotics. It's called the Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy. So if you had all of those books carried with you in your pockets, you'd have an enormous about a material. So those are some key ones to keep with you and I think I carried all of those books. I think I did too. I think that I was more partial toward the pocket medicine guide as opposed to the Washington manual. So I probably carried one, not both of those. But yes, you will find that your white coat gets very heavy from everything you're carrying. And also just to note for the surgical rotation, there's a great book called Surgical Recall, which is a nice sort of bulleted key book that you can keep with you on the wards, especially when you're preparing to go into the OR and you know you're going to get pimped. There are some key bulleted points and Q&A that you can go through. Now, for those of you who don't or are thinking, well, I don't really want to carry books, you probably could get away with not. I still think that even though we're in this electronically driven era, it's important to have some of those books on you. But there are some key apps that you can get now that are on your iPhone or your Samsung or whatnot. Some of the key ones that we've highlighted here are Hippocrates, which is like an electronic version of the pharmacopia. And it's a major drug reference and it has like every drug in it you could think of and all the dosing and all that good stuff. The best feature that I love about that is the pill pictures. Oh yeah, so a patient goes, I take a round blue pill and then you can narrow that down. You can actually search and say it's a round one, it's a blue one, it has letters on it or it's scored and it'll give you a list of medications that match. Yeah, or maybe they come in and they have like a bag full of bottles, which so many patients have in my time and you have no idea because the labels are all like scored and you've got one bottle. Yeah, exactly. So you can go through and try to figure out what they are. So that's Hippocrates. MedCalc is a great app and I used it as a medical student and I have since that time too. It's a great calculator just like it says it is for different medical formulas. If you're trying to calculate someone's creatinine clearance, which is their measure of their kidney function, other scores, classifications, it's a great little app for that and it has lots of different calculators in it. There are a couple others here. Dynamite is a pretty popular one. It has some clinical summaries on different topics, medical topics and then the final one we have listed here is visual DX or visual diagnosis, which is a pretty great reference tool. It has many, many diagnoses in it and over 28,000 different pictures actually of different medical conditions and this can be helpful to you both when you're trying to come up with the diagnosis and offer a treatment plan. All right, so those are some apps. Now, we get asked a lot, what stethoscope do I need? What ophthalmoscope do I need? I'll never forget, there was a cardiologist that came and talked to us. I don't know if you remember this, but cardiologist said the most important part of a stethoscope is what's between your ears. I remember that. Meaning this stethoscope doesn't matter. It's what you hear and how you're interpreting the sounds that you hear. With that said, it seems like everybody and I think everybody recommends and says, "Oh, you need the Lipman Cardiology 3." That's the stethoscope to buy and at work, it's funny. They just bought a bunch of new stethoscopes that were super expensive and I was like, "I like my cardiology 3 better." I don't even have my cardiology 3 anymore because I remember Lipman came to talk to us in med school. They tried to sell us all these different models. I bought the cardiology 3 like everybody else and then I lost it. I've gone through three different stethoscopes, so you'll leave them because you're super tired and forget where you left it in the ER and then it's gone. Stethoscopes also have a way of disappearing. So if you don't buy the cardiology 3, as long as you have a stethoscope, that's not just the crappy one that you can put together in two minutes from the box. From the ER? Yeah. I mean, you could use that, but you're not going to be able to hear really subtle things. Just get yourself, you don't have to get the cardiology 3. You could get the classic Lipman, which is actually what I use on a daily basis because I've lost so many of them. It's affordable. I wouldn't let her buy another cardiology 3. It's affordable. You can hear very well with it. There are even some stethoscopes out there that will let you record when you're listening to a patient, which is just crazy, but you don't need all that stuff. The other thing I will say, folks, you do not necessarily have to have an ophthalmoscope. We all went out and we bought our panoptics and these fancy ophthalmoscopes that we were going to carry around in the words. You don't have to have one. There are many hospitals are equipped with ophthalmoscopes in a lot of the room. So if you're thinking of, if you're strapped for your budget, you don't have to carry around an ophthalmoscope with you. So let's tell them what kind of ophthalmoscope we recommend first before telling them they don't even need it. That's true. All right. So the ophthalmoscope that we bought, I think it was relatively new when we were in school was the panoptic. And that's like, I think going from a VCR to a Blu-ray player as far as what you're able to see in the back of the eye. It's pretty amazing. And it's easier to use than a regular ophthalmoscope, I think. So it's a great ophthalmoscope to have. And it's interesting. Some medical schools will give ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes to students. Some will require that you buy them. I don't know why they require you to buy them because for the most part, you're in a hospital. There's ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes hanging on every wall that you turn to. So it's not necessary to buy them. It's kind of cool to have. It's one of those, another one of those status symbols, like a stethoscope hanging on the rear view mirror. Like, look at me. I'm a doctor. Oh, geez. But which don't do, by the way, especially if you live in warm environments or you'll have a permanent kink in your stethoscope like I do. But they're also expensive. They are expensive. Yeah. So you don't need ophthalmoscopes, you don't need otoscopes. The Welch Allen Panoptic is an awesome one if you do want to buy it. But the stethoscope, you definitely need a stethoscope, your own stethoscope. Yes. And along that, make sure in your pocket you have a pen light and also some EKG calipers. There are also some rotation specific tools. So on neurology, you do want to carry your reflex hammer. There are many different kinds. Don't worry about that unless you become a neurologist, a tuning fork. And on your surgical rotation, you're obviously going to need scrubs, traumashears, tape, sutures. Those are all good things to keep in your pockets. Yeah. And then there's a website out there that I think probably every hospital subscribes to, called up-to-date. And as a pre-med student, you probably haven't heard of it. But as a medical student, as you're on the ward's rounding, you've used up-to-date. It's a peer-reviewed Google almost. And you Google, I'll say Google, you search for anything that you want, and it gives you peer-reviewed data on anything that you want on treatment plans, diagnosis. It's pretty awesome. The only drawback is that typically you won't have access to it at home. It's only at the hospital because it is paid for. And some attendings out there are pretty old school and will not want you to use up-to-date. They'll want you to really go to the source, to go to the journal articles that these documents are drawn from. And so that's a very important note, just to be aware of it. It is always a good idea to go to the journal articles themselves. But up-to-date is a very quick and easy way to get information. If you're admitting someone, you need to know how do I handle diabetic ketoacidosis, put it into up-to-date. It'll give you key information that you need. Yeah. And then some other awesome stuff that similar to the the prep books for first and second year that we mentioned, there are shelf prep books for third and fourth year. And there's the blueprints. Alison already mentioned surgical recall. They have case study books and step up to medicine, I think, is one of the big ones similar to first aid for step one. Step up to medicine is another huge book. That's important. It's an awesome book. Case studies were my favorite of all those shelf prep. And by the way, for those of you out there, shelf is the exam that you take after each rotation in your third year. So there are the key exams that you need to be studying for, as you're also taking care of patients on the wards. And case studies, I just really like the format. It gives you different cases to go through. And through that, excuse me, you can learn about the subject matter. So those are great. Other key books, if you're preparing for your internal medicine shelf, the mix app is a great book. It's a question book that the internal medicine residents are actually using to study for their boards. And those can be really good, helpful questions too. And then just in terms of reference books, you're not going to read through these unless you're totally nuts and never sleep as a third year and fourth year. But just to have with you forever, the real Bible for medicine is Harrison's. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, which is a really wonderful book. And also a lot of people like Cecil's Essentials of Medicine. So those are some great references just to keep in your dorm room or your apartment so that you have them, not to carry around. Definitely not to carry around. But they make for good fly swatters. I don't know. They're big books. I'm staring at our Cecil's on our shelf. There are tons of resources that we just mentioned. And when you wrap it all up as a medical student, you're going to go on your residency interviews. And so you obviously need a suit. You'll need some sort of portfolio, something to hold all your papers and other stuff in. So don't forget about the small things like that. The double AMC has a roadmap to residency and and kind of help choose residencies and show you what's competitive, what's not competitive. So there are a bunch of different sources for choosing a residency as well. Yeah. So those are some great resources for all of you to have when you're on the wards, running around, taking care of patients. And then we'll just wrap up by talking about resources for residents. And this is going to depend certainly on what type of resident you are, what field of medicine or surgery you're in, where you are. But just in general, we thought we'd highlight a few. A few easy ones that every resident needs. Absolutely. So a board review book, just like Ryan said, when we talked to people, they say, well, what is something that would be very useful if you had to do it all over again? And that is just to have a board review book, even from the start, because it'll again start to train your brain and what are the key things I need to be learning for each diagnosis. And so have a find out from your peers, other residents who've trained before you, find out what board review book would be recommended and just have that with you. Now, key essentials for residents, a coffee maker, or gift cards in multiple to your favorite coffee place, whether that's Starbucks, or Dunkin' Donuts, or Peats, or wherever it is. Or if you don't drink coffee, then I don't know what to tell you because you're crazy. I don't drink coffee. Ryan and one of our best friends from med school got all the way through without ever having a sip of coffee. However, Ryan did drink quite a lot of diet soda. Yeah, and his jiggle eyes. Other just key ones, sleep, food, and family, and significant other time. Those are probably the most valuable resources for all residents. Yes, and wonderful patience to help you learn everything. Yes, and those final few we know that you can't really put under the tree, but that's okay. They're very helpful resources. Yeah, so hopefully that was some good information for you. We thought we would do something a little bit different since this is coming out on Christmas. We debated whether or not to even release a podcast for Christmas, but we thought it'd be fun to go over some resources that premeds medical students in residence should know and have. And we'll have, like I said, we'll have some more in the show notes in medicalschoolhq.net/57. And on that show notes page, if there is a great resource that you use that you think other people would benefit from, go ahead and leave a comment there on the show notes. Again, medicalschoolhq.net/57. You can also say hello to us on Twitter. I am @medicalschoolhq. Allison's on Twitter too, a little bit. She's @Allison_mshq. Or you can go to our feedback page and actually record some feedback for us and send us a message or a question and we can play it here on the podcast. And you can do that at medicalschoolhq.net/feedback. Don't be shy. We really love to hear from you guys. So as always, I hope the information provided will help better guide you on your path to becoming a physician. And just as importantly, I hope you join us next time here at the medical school headquarters. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
