Orthopedics, Essential Resource

As I have mentioned before, my life prior to becoming a PA was based primarily in orthopedics. I have collected some great resources over the years and Essentials of Musculoskeletal Care 3rd Ed. is one of them. There are LOTS of ortho books out there, but I love this one for the following reasons:

1. It has straight to the point information on most of the major orthopedic injuries that you will come across
2. It has a section for joint evaluation with photos
3. It has a CD that contains pdf style exercise sheets for all of the injuries that it talks about in the book (Bonus: it allows you to customize the header to include the patient's name and your name so it looks very professional)
4. ICD-9 codes are included
5. It has Netter anatomy pictures

Netter Anatomy

"How to" Joint Examinations

Overview Page

Index, Examples of Shoulder Injuries

Exercises

MPR iPhone App

The Monthly Prescribing Reference is an awesome free app. I use it daily during my clinical rotations. One of the most useful features for me is the "Interactions" feature.

At the bottom of the screen, select the "Interactions" icon.

In the upper right corner, click on the "Add" button and select the list of drugs that you are wondering about then click "View Interactions".

The drug interactions will pop up. Click on the drug vs drug section for more detail on the interactions. 

The interaction details are listed.

In addition, the references are at the bottom.

Monthly Prescribing Reference has been a life saver for me and has even helped me to catch a couple of interactions that had even been missed by my preceptors. Hope this helps!

Procedure Video: Acute Bleeding from a Peptic Ulcer

I am largely a visual learner. In fact, if I can't visualize it, I can't learn it. Therefore, I depend heavily on participating in procedures and finding videos to help me learn complicated medical concepts. I'm sure there are others out there like me so I will continue to share great videos that I find.

Clinical Evaluation of the Knee

Here are a couple (video and print) great resources to proper clinical assessment of the knee:

Clinical Evaluation of the Knee

Back to the Basics - Taking a BP

I've been spoiled. My last rotation had electronic BP machines and my first rotation had the nurses do the BP always... Today I was asked to re-check a patient's BP manually so I had kick off the rust... here is a great video by the NEJM on the "hows and why" of taking a manual BP.