P4s all over the country recently started their first block of APPE rotations. Before starting rotations, I asked advice from several recent graduates on which resources are most useful on rotations. Based on their suggestions and my personal experience, here is a list of resources that I recommend.
Books:
- Pocket Medicine by Marc Sabatine. Don't let it's pocket size fool you; this book appears to contain everything. For example, the Acute Coronary Syndrome section includes Calculation of TIMI Risk Score for UA/NSTEMI, detailed coverage of the therapeutics, and a table of contraindications to fibrinolysis.
- The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy. This book is also small enough to fit into your white coat and has countless detailed tables of antimicrobial therapeutics. Beware, the writing is very small so they are able to include diagnoses, etiologies, primary and alternative regimens, and comments.
- Rx Prep a comprehensive course for the NAPLEX. It's only May, I'm not studying for the NAPLEX yet! But I like to keep this book around my apartment because it has great summaries of disease states and therapeutics.
Online Resources:
- Uptodate.com is an extremely user friendly tool. It compiles information from primary source publications and Lexicomp. You can search by drug or disease state. You can only access it on networks that have paid for a license so you may not be able to access it at home.
- Pharmacist's Letter is a great user friendly way to keep up with monthly updates in the field of pharmacy. Wal-Mart pays for subscriptions for all student pharmacists. All you have to do is activate your subscription. In addition to the monthly letters, they have charts summarizing various therapeutics. I really like their nicotine replacement and BPH treatment algorithm charts.
- Micromedex, Lexicomp, Facts and Comparisons. Of course, these are great! I'm sure you are familiar with them already.
- Guidelines and Primary Literature. Always go back to the primary literature if you can!
Other useful tools:
- Whitecoat Clipboard, Pharmacy Edition. Sold by WhiteCoatClipboards.com, this useful resource folds to fit in your white coat. The pharmacy edition has information on the cover such as normal lab values, target serum concentrations for various medications, aminoglycoside dosing, and helpful equations. These clipboards also make a great fundraiser idea for student pharmacy organizations.
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