5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent review book
for any emergency medicine clerkship,
November 3, 2007
By John - See all my reviews
Reviewer: Fourth medical student going
into emergency medicine
Overview: Deja Review EM is a
question/answer book much like the very
popular First aid series or Recall series.
It is similar to the First aid series
except this particular one has sections of
brief, but high yield clinical vignettes
that I thought were particular useful and
some nice charts.
Positive:
1. It was packed with very high-yield
questions, all bread-n-butter EM topics
that attendings I worked with asked me.
2. Charts: It contained very useful charts
I used a lot such as a tox antidote chart,
toxidrome chart, and NIH stroke scale that
was easy to refer to.
3. Clinical Vignettes: Short brief basic
scenarios that one would normally see in
the ED with brief diagnosis that was also
very good to read.
4. Short and to the point: Much as I
wanted to read Rosen's or Tin, I had
little time to do that type of reading. I
really needed a book that had sort of
"just the facts" information for quick
reference and something I can read in
bursts like when I am in the bathroom.
5. Pretty small compare to other review
books and would carry it with me on the
wards.
6. Very well-organized by systems which I
am use to.
Negatives:
1. I think the thing that makes the book
so useful on the EM clerkship can be a
negative. Since it is just Q/A format, it
does not have pathophysio that may be
important to know, but if I needed to know
that I would just use a major text.
2. I think the organ-based system is
great, but I know some books out there use
more of a complaint-based approach much in
the way you would see a patient is. Some
people prefer this method of learning
which is totally fine, if that is the
case, the system-approach of this book may
not be the best for you.
Overall:
I honestly thought this book was an
excellent read that was fast to read and
very high-yield. I do really felt it
helped me immensely on my EM clerkship as
I could quickly look via it after I saw a
patient. My clerkship was a good
experience and my attendings actually
encouraged me to look things up after I
saw a patient. I know not all clerkships
work this way. I also choice this book
since it seems to be really new, I think
it came out a week before my rotation. I
also used Recall, which I thought was
good, but a little too dense. Anyways, I
highly recommend this book to anyone doing
an EM clerkship.
