Emergency Medicine Oral Board Review (Pearls of Wisdom) [Paperback]

William Gossman (Author), Scott H. Plantz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0071464263 | ISBN-13: 978-0071464260 | Edition: 4

Why waste time guessing at what you need to know for the emergency medicine oral boards? Maximize your exam preparation time with this quick-hit question and answer review. The unique question and single-answer format eliminates the guesswork associated with traditional multiple-choice Q&A reviews and reinforces only the correct answers you'll need to know for your oral exam. Emphasis is placed on distilling key facts and clinical pearls essential for exam success. This high-yield review for the oral boards is the perfect compliment to larger texts for intense, streamlined review in the days and weeks before your exam.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William G. Gossman, MD, FAAEM, works as a Project Medical Director at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott H. Plantz, M.D. is an Associate Professor at Chicago Medical School in Chicago, Illinois. He is also affiliated with Sinai Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Product Details

• Paperback: 454 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Appleton & Lange; 4 edition (August 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071464263
• ISBN-13: 978-0071464260
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Cases, May 13, 2007

By 

E. Nielson (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emergency Medicine Oral Board Review (Pearls of Wisdom) (Paperback)

This book is very helpful for those studying the oral boards. By far, the most helpful section of the book are the numerous cases. My wife, who is not in medicine, with a little coaching from me, quickly learned the process of how to administer a case, and we covered nearly all of them. I felt very well prepared going into the test.

My greatest concern with the book is that it really needs to be updated. Several of the therapies, meds, proceedures etc. are out dated. An updated edition is needed.

That being said, doing cases over and over is more important for preparing for the boards than is understanding current medical treatment of patients.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars lots of info, January 13, 2007

By 

vt soxfan (Middlebury, VT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Emergency Medicine Oral Board Review (Pearls of Wisdom) (Paperback)

There is a lot of information packed into this book, and about twenty practice cases. The practice cases are helpful only if you have a study partner who is also preparing for the boards so you can do them with each other in a board type format. It's hard to do in a community hospital setting when you're not studying with other residency grads. The info is divided by subject in an outline form and it's straightforward and seems up to date. It's hard to just sit down and read it though. The procedure pearls are a little more detailed than you might be asked but the random pearls were somewhat more helpful. Generally, it's most helpful if you are able to study with others. Alas, even though I read and highlited and did the cases, it didn't help me much...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars there needs to be another option out there, October 18, 2009

By 

P. Bamba "just another customer" (washington dc) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Emergency Medicine Oral Board Review: Pearls of Wisdom, Fifth Edition (Paperback)

the 48 practice cases are useful but i really wish they put in a little more effort fleshing them out so that when you do drills you are able to ask a good history. most of the patient details in the cases are left out, and sometimes the details are important (like virtually no details of presenting history, no pulse ox in most of the patients who are short of breath, no mention of repeat vitals when trying to assess the patient for response to resuscitative efforts). it's difficult to guide your therapeutic plan with this kind of information missing. there are also tons of typographical and grammatical errors. you would think people with advanced degrees wouldn't put out something that looks like it was put together by grade schoolers with an uncanny medical knowledge base. also, as mentioned in other reviews, the book advocates for many outdated treatment modalities which may actually harm your test score if followed.

the good thing about the book is that by running the cases you can establish a template in your mind so that things don't go missed at the exam. the fact is that the oral board exam is a contrived simulation. most of us have the requisite medical knowledge to manage these cases if encountered in real life. the important thing is to not forget to do things that you would always do in real life when there is a real live patient in front of you. wash and dress wounds. check a blood sugar. put the patient on oxygen. basic stuff. you just have to find a way to be systematic to avoid missing anything.

unfortunately, i can't recommend you not buy this book because honestly, it seems the only other options to prepare for this test is to pony up the dough for a $1000 review course, or to just study texts on your own. the entire first two sections of the book (a rundown of all the potentially covered topics, replete with the same typographical, grammatical, and informational errors) can be ignored, as that material is best covered by reviewing a text of your choice. i just wish they had spent more time on the cases, because they could have been of so much more use to me.

one final piece of advice, make a list of procedures that you don't do often enough to be able to effortlessly describe, write a short description of each and drill yourself on describing them out loud in case you run into a case that requires you to perform the procedure.