Congratulations! You’ve made it all the way into med school!
Now the hard work really begins.
There’s tons to get sorted, from accommodation to books and… (wait for it) your first stethoscope. Or not. Depending on what background you come from. Every uni has their own accommodation arrangements, though most would offer some form of on-campus housing. I can only comment for Monash GMS, which I will only sparingly.
Let’s begin with something more generic. Like books.
BOOKS
Your faculty would issue you with a booklist of prescribed and recommended texts. Needless to say, in this day and age, it is pretty easy to “acquire” an electronic version of these books to save on money and shelf space. Or you might be a book junkie like myself and require the actual physical book to get me going.
Books in Australia cost a fair bit more than books back home in Singapore. Though, for those flying from Sunny SG, be mindful of the total weight you’re bringing over. Here are my top picks of textbooks:
Anatomy
Anatomy might be the most difficult subject for some people to wrap their heads around. There are tons of books out there for this subject and most of them are pretty okay. There are the heavyweights which are pretty much household names of every meddie though.
The Anatomy Coloring Book – Kapit & Elson
Netter’s Clinical Anatomy – Hansen
Gray’s Anatomy for Students – by whoever
Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy
It’s best to pick one atlas and one textbook. Browsing about would help you decipher which textbook works best for you. I would definitely highly recommend the Anatomy Coloring Book. It works wonders. Plus it’s way fun to pull out the color pencils once in a while
And yes. I am a very big Netter fan.
If you get the opportunity, and if the price is right, you might want to look into procuring the anatomy flash cards by Gray and Netter. They’re really handy when it comes to preparing for exams.
Physiology
I pretty much suck at this subject. But there are a few books I can recommend for it to become un-sucky.
Saladin
Guyton
Marieb
I use Saladin, but was recently told it’s way too elementary for med school. Guyton is the prescribed text for Monash, and Marieb just keeps popping up in the lectures. They have awesome diagrams to help you understand the vast worlds of physiology. Guyton tends to be a tad wordier but detailed enough for your medical degree and beyond.
Clinical Skills
Don’t bother looking at anything else.
Clinical Examination – Talley & O Connor
Seriously. This is the bible of clinical skills.
Medicine
Clinical Medicine – Kumar & Clark
Addtitionals
Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine
Stedman’s Medical Dictionary (though with the internet, I highly doubt you’d need this)
Stethoscopes
Yes. That dangly thing we all love to hang around our necks at the most inappropriate of times. In fact, there’s even a facebook group for it.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13022015407
But seriously now.
There are two schools of ideas when it comes to buying your first stethoscope.
Buy something cheap
- you train your ears to pick up sounds better
- you won’t be as heartbroken when you inevitably lose it
Buy something better
- you’re going to look after it better
- you can use it for longer
The most popular stethoscope, as far as I can tell, is from Littmann. I personally use a Littmann Cardiology III which I simply ADORE. The second favorite has got to be the Littmann Classic II which is equally fantastic and comes in a myriad of colors. I’ll now go through what little I know of each stethoscope and why I ended up choosing what I did.
Cardiology III
I eventually ended up with a Cardiology III all black edition, exactly as shown in this picture above. The cardiology III is the pricier of the two and has a shorter neck. This means you have to lean a tad closer to the patient, and some people might find it a little shorter when hung around their necks. The cardiology III is “double tubed” if memory serves me correctly, and this basically means clearer sounds. With two tubes inside the rubber lumen, one going to either ear, it reduces ambient noise. Though it does make it a tad difficult to listen to what the patient is saying once I put them on.
It features two tunable diaphragms on either side, the smaller one being used for pediatrics. To alternate between the bell and the diaphragm, you just vary the pressure you put on it. This works sometimes, and other times it just doesn’t. If it doesn’t, just take out the diaphragm on the pediatric side and viola! A bell!
AUD219.95 on www.medisave.com.au
Classic II SE
The Classic II is the most popular stethoscope, from what I can tell in my class. It has a tunable diaphragm on one side, and a bell on the other. Once again, you can alternate between bell and diaphragm by adjusting the pressure applied. The neck on this is longer and you can easily hang it around your neck. It comes in lots of colors as well.
AUD104.98 on www.medisave.com.au
Here is a chart of colors Littmann comes in. Colors vary according to which model you pick.
Most places would offer free engraving with your stethoscope purchase.
My little sister bought mine for me from the USA (yippee) and it cost a whole AUD50 less than if I bought it in Australia. Not entirely sure how that works though.
A little note about stethoscope covers. They look really cute and all, but at the end of the day, they’re still a risk for carrying a whole consortium of pathogens. There are other ways to care for your stethoscope.
The rubber tubing would eventually crack and dry. This really can’t be helped. Some say it is the natural oils that ooze from our necks and hair that break down the rubber. Some say putting it in a hot car or constantly putting it in your bag would ruin it. Someone told me putting baby oil on it might help. And I’m pretty sure there are a million other little tips and tricks to making sure your little steth lasts.
