I’ve recently had several of the interns asking me about studying. I think all of us should be studying one of the core texts: Rosen’s, Tintinalli’s, or Harwood-Nuss. My own preference is for Tintinalli’s for a number of reasons. It is the most direct, in terms of what do I need to know to take care of a patient with this condition. It is also slightly more comprehensive than Rosen’s. I also love that it has three versions: Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide; Emergency Medicine Manual (with a new version coming out soon); and Emergency Medicine: Just the Facts. For those that don’t know, the manual is a shortened version of the big book, still in paragraph form.  Just the Facts is an outline version. I use the big book as my primary resource, the manual when I just can’t make myself read the renal chapter, and Just the Facts as a quick review.

Rosen’s is a wonderful book, extremely well written, and something I plan to read after residency. Hawood-Nuss is too simplistic, leaves out too much of what a good ER doctor needs to know, and in my opinion is only suitable for NPs and PAs.

If you are trying to decide which book works for you, pick a couple of chapters of each book, read the chapters and see what works better. Notice that I say a couple chapters, because each chapter is written by different authors. You don’t won’t to stick with less than ideal book, just because one chapter was written beautifully.

A resource I recently discovered and have been enjoying is CrackCast. It is written by a Canadian group and they publish a new lecture each week going over a single chapter of Rosen’s, in order. Now even though I am a Tintinalli’s man and the material is slightly different, core content is core content. The lectures are wonderful.

CRACKCast

Something else wonderful about this group is their belief in spaced repetition. The group publishes flashcards for every lecture that they do.

Flashcards

For our interns, here are a couple previous blog posts about learning and spaced repetition:

Science of Learning

Spaced Repetition