One of the challenges of being a clerkship director of internal medicine is that
there is no perfect textbook for one’s course. More comprehensive textbooks
often have all the information a student should have for their patient care
needs, but the volume of information in these comprehensive textbooks is far
too much for a student to read (much less reread, and study) in the few weeks
of a medicine clerkship. Therefore, many students resort to purchasing one of
the shorter textbooks, readable within the confines of a clerkship, but often not
having the detail of information needed to understand in-depth the patient’s
problems (with that superficial knowledge inevitably exposed by attendingquestioning
on rounds!). To solve this dilemma, students often buy two textbooks,
one comprehensive, one more general; however, as the clerkship winds
to an end, and final examinations loom, reading often defaults to the shorter
textbook, resulting in less in-depth understanding of internal medicine.