What Goes In Your Pockets:

• Pocket Medicine (aka the “little red book of medicine”)
• Maxwell’s Quick Medical Reference
• PDA/phone with drug reference
• a written or electronic ECG reference (we recommend the iPhone app ECG Guide)
• scutsheets or note cards to keep track of patients
• flashcards you’ve made
• notepad
• stethoscope
• alcohol wipes to clean your stethoscope between patients
• penlight
• cheap pens
• +/- Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy
• +/- white coat clipboard
• +/- blood draw supplies

What to Study:

• First Aid for the Medicine Clerkship or Blueprints Medicine - Choose whichever you prefer as your main text, and stick to it. We prefer First Aid, as it has a couple of extra topics not covered in Blueprints (e.g., Dermatology).
• MKSAP for Students 4 - Great question book for studying for your shelf exam
• Medicine PreTest – Good question book, as well.
• Pocket Medicine - Great reference to quickly look up the basics of a certain topic, and it fits nicely in your white coat pocket.

DIT Study Plan:

Internal Medicine – 12 Weeks*

*We realize that not every school has the same rotation length. We’ve based our study plans off of the most common rotation length. You may need to readjust the number of pages and questions per day for a shorter or longer rotation length. Also, our rotation study plans are based off 7-day study weeks. If you prefer to study for only 5 or 6 days per week, that’s ok, too. Just read a few more pages and do a few more questions than we suggest in this plan on the days you are studying.

**You will find that you will occasionally need to deviate from this plan so that you can “read ahead” about your patients and the cases you will be seeing. This study guide is designed to keep you on track and get you through the material enough times to do well on your shelf exam.

Other Advice:

• Keep note cards or scutsheets on your patients and update them every day. Be sure to come in early enough to pre-round on your patients and discuss the plan with your intern before you present to the team.
• Ask for feedback from your resident and attending daily. Many residents and attendings don’t give feedback unless they are approached because they either don’t want to hurt students’ feelings or write off students who do not actively seek their input. Showing you care goes a long way.
• Give at least one educational presentation to each attending (and team) with whom you work.
• Make some flashcards every day based on course objectives, readings, lectures, and/or wards learning from which to study in your downtime.