Customer Reviews

Blueprints Pediatrics (Blueprints Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So I just finished up my pediatric rotation and used this book pretty heavily. Having used blueprints for Neuro and OB/GYN, I have a pretty good grasp on how this book compared to some of the other books in this series, and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it is well written and concise, but it is not necessarily geared toward passing the pediatric shelf exam, which I was using it for. It touches on a number of points that are outright ridiculous to teach to a medical student in their pediatric clerkship. If anything, the first chapter should clue you in on this. It speaks about life saving measures in an emergency department setting. Unfortunately the ED is not covered by general pediatricians and this information is not pertinent to the pediatric shelf exam. It continues by introducing a number of diseases, zebras, which are almost never seen! For example, the dermatology chapter introduces several common rashes that present in children and then the next thing you know it is talking about Gianotti-Crosti, a very rare form of post viral exanthema. It neglects to introduce some very common problems in children, while letting minute points drag on and on. Odd facts continue in tables that are over packed with so much information that it is just doesn't help you diagnose or manage x,y, and z. I mean really, I bought this book with the intent of reading it like a textbook, and it was really disappointing to see a chapter heading that referred you to a table without saying a word about it. In summary, this book is a broad overview of pediatrics. It is so broad that it fails to gear itself toward the medical students and helping them pass the shelf exam. So, if you would like a well written book on pediatrics that is concise and too the point, but you don't mind a couple zebras every now and then, this is your book.

This book is ok for a quick once over of all topics relevant to Pediatrics. However, it lacks any detail on the most important and high yield topics. I found myself consistently looking up topics on [...] and using other resources thus making this book a poor choice as a primary resource for pediatrics.

I would recommend First Aid over this one. Blueprints lacks in important basic topics such as nutrition.
Today I saw a child in the ward with chronic glomerulonephritis and opened this book, it had 3 sentences on the topic. At the same time some extremely rare disorders are covered in much more detail.

Throughout med school I have been a big fan of the Blueprints series, however, this book lacks the high yield organization and writing that other Blueprints exemplify.

Many of the chapters are inundated with minutia, and trivia that is not warranted for the shelf or steps.

Overall it is a good read, but I would prefer a much higher yield text.

This book is useless.

Of the many problems with this book, the gravest is that it speaks in broad generalizations, and gives no detail at all. Something to the effect of "This symptom could be caused by X, Y, Z..." "The treatment could include X, Y, or Z." The problem is that it gives everything in a big run on sentence in no particular order, including the super-rare along side the very common. For board studying, where you need to know most likely diagnosis and next best step, it is useless.

As mentioned above, the book is written using crappy English. It very often uses soft qualifiers like "sometimes, often, may," etc so you have no idea if what it is describing is common or not. Subjects are mixed together, and the use of run-on sentences is obscene and nearly unreadable. An example: "Infants infected early in pregnancy suffer from intrauterine meningoencephalitis and present with microcephaly, hydrocephalus, microphthalmia, chorioretinitis, intracranial calcifications and seizures. These infants may also appear septic and have jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, purpura, petechiae, an macropapular rash, and generalized lymphadenopathy."

This is an actual quote, from the Treatment section for heart murmurs. The ENTIRE section! "The treatment of heart disease may be medical, surgical, interventional in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, or a combination of these depending on the specific abnormality." Wow, thanks. I'll be sure explain it just like that next time I'm getting pimped by my attending.

This is just another average quick read book for medstudents and residents for a quick review of pediatrics. It is VERY basic. It misses many important topics. For example, there is nothing about epistaxis, a very common condition. It could be useful for USMLE preparation. There are 100 USMLE type questions with explanations.

I have difficulty finding review books sometimes, because I don't like how scattered some books are (Case Files). I prefer to work on conquering one topic at a time, but textbooks are too much. I read all of this book for my peds clerkship and did probably 1/2 - 3/4 of Pre-test and got an Honors. I set up a reading schedule in Excel early on and stuck to that. I felt like I could read one chapter of this, which is quite short, and really feel like I accomplished something. May not be the best thing out there, but if worked for me.

I was very impressed with the blue prints obgyn book and as such bought the pediatric book from their series. Overall I am pretty disappointed with this book. Its not well written and there are even occasional mistakes. There is alot of focus on minutia with other important points omitted.

i took CK before having finished my pediatrics rotation. i was a little nervous about this prospect, but after reading blueprints, i was well prepared. hit all the high yield points

in typical blueprints fashion, there is a nice assortment of questions and explanations at the end of the book.

great for board review or during your rotation.

Every topic I encountered on the shelf exam, was covered in blueprints. It explains everything thoroughly which means that you have to read slowly but when the shelf exam comes around you'll be happy you did.