On the Textbooks I Used

Clinical ward rounds is killing me... And it's just the first posting... Gah.

Anyways, while this post may be a tad boring one to other people, this guy Bryan left a message on the cbox asking what books to buy for clinical school. Now I don't think I know any Bryan apart from my housemate, so I really don't know what books to recommend. It all depends on the person really. And for one thing, the books differ from school to school.

But anyways, here's to you Bryan.

For general medicine, you'll need to start off with a clinical examination book. There are a few in the market. But I'm using Nicholas J Talley and Simon O'Connor's Clinical examination: A Systematic Guide to Physical Diagnosis [Churchill Livingstone].

Then you'll need a standardized textbook. As usual, there are a few as well. I got Kumar&Clark's Clinical Medicine [Elsevier Saunders]. It's kinda impossible to read the book as it's over 2inches thick *ahem*. So it's as a reference.

For reading purposes, there's Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine [Oxford]. But my buddy told me it's not so much of a use at my level, since 3rd year here are more inclined to examination and history taking. OHCM is very useful for the final years when management of diseases comes into play.

I've also gotten myself the Pocket Essentials of Kumar&Clark Clinical Medicine. For fast reference in the ward.

For surgery, you'd need an equivalent Talley (what we call the clinical examination book). We're using Browse's Introduction to the Symptoms and Signs of Surgical Disease. I haven't done any reading for surgery, as my first posting now is on medicine.

We're using Essential Surgery [Churchill Livingstone] by Burkitt, Quick, Reed and Deakin as reference.

For paediatics, Illustrated textbook of Paediatrics by Lissauer and Clayden [Mosby] is told to be more simpler and easier to understand. But rumors had it that paediatricians in our school hated the book and would be furious at whoever using the book.

So I'm suggesting Nelson Essentials of Paediatrics by Kliegman, Marcdante, Jenson and Behrman [Elsavier Saunders].

On O&G, everyone was saying the Ten Teachers to be superb. I have mine somewhere in the box, have yet to go look for them as O&G is my 3rd posting. But I've also gotten another one called the Essentials of Obstetrics and Essentials of Gynaecology. They're 2 seperate books.

Basically those are all the textbooks I'm using. There are some other smaller ones, pocket versions which are essentially important. I think. Have got one on chest X-ray, ECG, differential diagnosis as well as some of them by local proffesors...

Like mentioned, it all depends on which school you're going to. But there wouldn't be much difference if you're a medical student in Malaysia's public university. Judging from the way you asked, I suppose you're not? Just guessing. I hope this post helps. You can always reach me on my email address. It's displayed beneath the cbox.

Good luck!

To myself as well. LOL