Customer Reviews

Emergency Medicine Oral Board Review (Pearls of Wisdom)

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

 

 

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.

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...

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 also, as mentioned in other reviews, the book advocates for many outdated treatment modalities which may actually harm your test score if followed.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.

Save your money. Buy a used third or forth edition if you like. The forth edition needed a serious update as other reviewers have stated. This is now a dinasour. If you want to flunk the boards use the treatment protocols. Many are only valuable as history of how we practiced E.M. 10-15 years ago.ie. ACLS is at least two AHA revisions behind (?1999). Adb trauma still uses DPL and doesn't memtion US. They didn't even bother to correct the typos from the 4th Ed. The cases are good for review but that's about all.

The book is filled with mistakes. They have a lot of MDs listed under the contributors, and I wonder if any of them took the time to do any research on what they were writing.

Also, you can't use the case portion of the book with out another emergency medicine doctor that really knows their stuff running the cases with you.

I haven't taken the boards yet, but I'm pretty sure that learning inaccurate information is not going to help me pass.

I used the cases at the end of the book to practice for the oral boards. There were medical information mistakes, but the cases were decent and did the job. Passed the oral boards on the first attempt. I did not read the material in front of the cases, seeing as how there were multiple mistakes....didn't feel I can trust it.

Concise and to the point. There are a few errors though, especially with dosages. Overall, decent review book for a quick review.

This is a great tool to use while preparing for the Oral Board Exam. Read the content info first, but don't read the cases. It's most helpful to use as your own "Practice Board Review Course"..grab a study-buddy, number all the cases, and pick them out of a hat to practice in the true style of the Boards. Some are a little far fetched for the actual exam day, but those just keep you anxious enough to keep studying. If you master this book, the Boards are a snap.

Preparing for the oral boards: this book has an easy to use format, appropriate for the boards, concise, not too much information, some of it is a bit outdated however. Each topic/disease covered has a section on clinical evaluation (s&s, ddx, workup), and rx/tx, and disposition recommendations. There are formulas and "pearls" as well for review (parkland formula, ped weight/bp, fluid maintenance, ct sizes, foley/ngt sizes). Plus there are 48 cases that you can go over with a partner, very helpful.

Offers good pearls. At the end offers sample cases that can be practiced with a partner.