First Aid for the Pediatrics Clerkship, Third Edition (First Aid Series)

Pros:1. very readable outline format.2. covers a lot of pediatric issues and diseases.3. more integrated mini-cases were added to this edition.4. silly looking sketches inside the book were replaced with more professional drawings, and the cover looks prettier now with the picture of smiling freckly girl on it. :)Cons:1. sometimes too simplistic and superficial. hematology is especially weak - Diamond-Blackfan Anemia is mentioned only as a differential diagnosis for Transient Erythroblastopenia of Childhood, and Fanconi's Anemia - only as something which should be distinguished from Fanconi Syndrome. treatment issues need much more detailed discussions - for example, no mention that treatment for tuberculosis follows 2 months + 4 months guideline (though its more 'advanced' sibling 'First Aid for the Pediatric Boards', 1st ed., doesn't provide any info about tuberculosis at all, except for PPD interpretation).2. some typos or factual errors:on page 450 says that stage 4 of Neuroblastoma is 'self-limited with good prognosis'. that's wrong - stage 4 is the most advanced and incurable stage. it's stage 4S which is 'self-limited with good prognosis'. so, they somehow managed to lose this important 'S' between previous and current editions.on page 559 under the heading 'Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder' gives definitions for obsessions and compulsions, and then goes on to describe diagnosis, signs and symptoms, and treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, never mentioning the name 'Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder' itself. so, you're getting a nice mix of these classically confused psychiatric disorders.3. there are some redundant repetitions - for example, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is covered twice, in different chapters; the same about Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip.4. needs more illustrations.

Pretty good overview of things to know for the pediatrics clerkship. I definitely recommend another book to supplement (I use Case Files). First Aid is pretty much a bunch of facts laid out on the page and looks more so for me because I'm using the kindle version. Some people study well with reading bullet points; I don't so I probably will not be purchasing another First Aid for other clerkships. The book is good for looking up quick facts and has some useful tables & diagrams. But if you want more explanations and more detailed info on management of conditions, First Aid is not good for that. I ended up looking up a lot of information while going through First Aid, which you can argue is a good intellectual exercise in itself. I prefer Blueprints since it reads more like a book and has decent management overviews.Another note about the kindle version-- it's kind of confusing. The pages look like they jump around and I get random tidbits of information on the wrong page. It's not too bad and I take this over lugging around another book when I'm on the wards. If I didn't have to deal with studying on the go, I would have gotten the book version instead of the digital version.

I really liked this book. I highly recommend it! I used it to study for my medical school rotation COMAT/shelf exam, and I feel it really helped me get a good score. The book is concise but covers a broad range of topics and disease states. It gives key symptoms or features of each disease state, lab results, and treatments. It lists important test clues in the columns.The best feature of this book is that the disease states that you learn about are not just realevent to pediatrics but to adults as well. It's really like an overall review of everything you studied for Step 1 boards in a condensed version. I used the notes that I took from this book to study for my Step 2 boards for not only the pediatrics section but for all the various body systems as well. Diseases discussed in this book affect the pediatric population, but they also affect adults. I felt this book was a great comprehensive review for boards (COMLEX).

For my Peds Clerkship it was a useful book with a lot of info, but I found there to be too much info at times. I expected it to be more of a quick review book. As usual I think I used the case files and usmle easy questions mostly for the rotation. The First Aid Peds was more supplemental to jog my memory for a lecture topic and of course I used a text for the details that were not in the first aid book.

I bought this book for the pediatric shelf exam, but once I opened it and started studying it, it seemed like just too much information that was clinically relevant but not good for the shelf exam. This book would be great to read before your pediatric rotation, especially if you are thinking about going into pediatrics and really want to impress the right people. There is very good information in the beginning about full patient history and physical that is clinically important. However, I don't think it would be helpful for the shelf exam.

I purchased this text for my peds shelf and it was too much information for me. I barely got through the first chapter or so before realizing I was spending too much time on each subject covered and switched to another review text that was much easier to read. If you have the time, this text probably contains everyhting you need to know to do well on the shelf and could be used as your only resource.

Great book for boards prep. A little dense for the COMAT. Good to have as reference when doing questions. Does have diseases not common to kids where they specifically state "very rarely seen in children but..."

Poorly organized. This book is rich in information (though not all correct), but the layout is obtuse and not conducive to aiding in reasoning. The style makes it challenging to think in terms of patient presentations and differential diagnosis, rather it superficially separates similar diseases, not drawing on any strategy to differentiate them. Definitely a weak book in an otherwise fine series of books.

Practically new, in excellent conditions.