Pocket Essentials of Clinical Medicine - The gospel for 3rd years...

Is there really anything that can be said about the greatness of this book that hasn't already been said by cohorts of medical students all over? No is invariably the answer, because you'll find that from the moment you pick this book up, it will become one of your most trusted and most turned to quick references for all things clinical medicine.

PROS: The Pocket Essentials of Clinical Medicine has a very nice layout with clear headings making it very readable and with close links to the daddy of clinical medicine books: the Kumar and Clark proper, you're never unsure of where to look to get that extra info on investigation or management!

It is affcteditonalty called "Baby Kumar and Clarke" by medics around the country and it has become an invaluble revision aid for 3rd year and 4th year exams for medical students everywhere. I don't know any medical student who doesn';t own a copy, it doesn't rank far behind the Oxford Handbook (of Clinical Medicine) in terms of ubiquity.

What's found here that's often lacking in other books of this nature, are a few words on pathophysiology which you will find incredibly helpful as you try to make sense of what's going on when you're looking at a patient and trying to put together their symptoms and signs!

CONS: The only complaint would be there isn't much coverage of the "specialties" (for the uninitiated, that is eyes, skin, that sort of thing) but you'll find there are other books that cover the "specialties" in much more detail.

FINAL WORD: I didn't have one of these when I was doing CBLs or PBL as they are called now, but this would definitely come in handy for all those case based scenarios, because its very well structured for answering all those questions on investigations and management!

MedStudentBooks Rating: 10/10