What is Reddit's opinion of Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine?

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I highly highly recommend the Pocket Medicine book, the internal medicine version. I got it for my first hospital medicine rotation but it would've been helpful for my gen/trauma surg rotation, ED, all primary care, etc. There are other versions too, like one specifically for primary care. I can't vouch for any of the others, but I know some of my classmates really liked the primary care version. If you're into hospital medicine too, all of my preceptors on those rotations recommended it or commented positively when they saw I had it. It's really helpful for coming up with differentials and interpreting harder labs that we didn't learn in didactic.

Also, not a book, but I have the quickEM app on my phone for quick and dirty differentials in EM and urgent care. I also have the uptodate and epocrates apps on my phone for whenever I need to look something up on the go.

Lastly, this will depend on how you took notes during didactic, but for my didactic year I copy/pasted all of the words/photos from powerpoints and organized them into different pages on onenote. So for clinical year I downloaded the onenote app to my phone and if I was learning about something but felt it was organized better in my notes or I wanted to double check something I had learned, I could pull up that app.

Pocket medicine was an awesome reference for me. Easy to carry around and have out while rounding.

Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine https://www.amazon.com/dp/1975142373/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_3Qs9FbP1AVD25

It's totally fine! The first day of any rotation is usually just orientation, getting situated, and learning how to find your way about the hospital or clinic. Your team will lay out expectations on the first day and then you'll know what to do moving forward. You're really not expected to know much on the first day. Once you're on the rotation, you automatically learn so much - on the job and through your studies for shelf exams - you'll be completely fine.

On your rotations, it's good to have a resource you can carry around with you on rotations to look things up when you're unsure. I really like Pocket Medicine (great for Family & Internal Medicine rotations) which you can carry around in your white coat and look up how to diagnose/treat/prognosticate the various conditions you see. When you're on surgery, it's probably more useful to have a set of trauma shears in your coat as well as common dressing supplies (suture removal kits, gauze, silk tape, pads - all stuff you can get from supply closets on the hospital floors - have a resident show you). Honestly when you're doing rotations, every day is different and it's really about getting used to the personalities you work with and knowing what they want. Generally residents are very helpful and can answer your questions and help guide you!

Here are some books I used to study for clinical rotations and prepare for shelf exams. Step Up to Medicine is a great review for Family Medicine and IM. For Surgery, I think Pestana (short, definitely recommend reading) & DeVirgilio (long, case-based) are the top 2 resources. I also had Surgical Recall (common pimping questions) which I liked.

If you really want to review stuff before starting rotations (not that you need to), I'd also recommend listening to podcasts since it's easy to squeeze in a light review while driving/doing other things. Shamelessly plugging my own podcast Spoonful of Sugar here - we review topics at the level of Step 1 with the goal of linking material you learn in books to how it's actually applied in the wards. But there's a ton of awesome podcasts out there. I got into medical podcasts with the Curbsiders - they cover a lot of topics in evidence-based medicine by interviewing various specialists. Other ones I like are Inside the Boards and Divine Intervention.

Is it just this? Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine https://www.amazon.com/dp/1975142373/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_SDVVVWKFAKMP9Q6G2N5S

You sound like an amazing supporter. Your partner is lucky to have you in their life. I know I wouldn't have made it through PA school without my wife(and kiddo for that matter)- even though she was 3 hours away most of the time.

1.) Maybe a cheap but sturdy "carry-on" luggage set? Being able to roll ones clothes around from place to place might be really helpful if they don't have it yet.

2.) AirBnB gift card, but if you don't have a large budget this could get expensive fast.

3.) Christmas - if he has off - maybe just plan a night away somewhere where you both can relax and rest? Couples massage?

4.) Cheap ideas: Get him a "stethoscope pal" in anticipation of his pediatrics rotation. Putting a little bear or something on his work uniform / instruments can go a long way to ease those little minds n' bodies.

5.) Books:

https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Medicine-Dr-Marc-Sabatine/dp/1975142373

https://www.amazon.com/notebook-Medical-Physical-templates-perforations/dp/B01HU696MY/

6.) A bunch of decent gel pens. These will be stolen from him or lost, but having an abundance is great to have.

Good luck! If you have made it this far, you probably have what it takes to see it through to the end.

Pocket medicine (currently on 7th edition)