Best books and resources for the Pediatrics shelf and rotation 2024
We know that getting a consensus on the best books and resources for any given rotation can be difficult. Asking friends, searching SDN, and consulting seniors can provide a confusing mixed bag of advice.
Turns out, we've done the work for you. Compiled below are comprehensive recommendations on the best books and resources. Click here to find out how we ranked each resource as well as a description of the tiers used. Happy studying!
Highest Yield — The best pediatric book for medical school
BRS Pediatrics — Brown & Miller
The BRS Pediatrics book is well applauded as one of the most thorough review books for Pediatrics. If you've used BRS for MSI/II classes, you know it organizes topics logically in outline format; the Pediatrics book breaks pathology into a number of categories such as clinical features, diagnosis, complications, management, and prognosis. A huge plus are its questions which goes over its reviewed material. It fits well in a white coat pocket but, be warned, it's dense with 528 pages.
Pediatrics PreTest Self-Assessment and Review — Yetman & Hormann
Apart from UWorld, Pretest Pediatrics has the most relevant, reliable, time-tested questions for the Pediatrics shelf; there are 500 questions broken down by systems. Answers go over reasoning and rationale.
Emma Ramahi's UTHSCSA High Yield Guide
As high yield as high yield goes. A review PDF that a 4th year medical student made. Great to flip through the night before the shelf exam
Next Steps
Shelf-Life Pediatrics — Sheth
One of the newest players in the Pediatrics Shelf question books, Shelf Life Pediatrics has 500 questions in full color with pictures and illustrations that supplement questions and help guide understanding; additionally, it tackles each answer choice in the answers portions of the book with explanations. Comfortingly, it has had great feedback from users on SDN and reddit.
NMS Pediatrics — Dworkin
If you want a true textbook for the Pediatrics Clerkship, NMS Pediatrics will fulfill that need. It's broken down in an outline format but, unlike Step Up to Medicine, it's quite hefty on the writing and paragraphs that make up its outline-based format. If anything, the outline help format the text and helps make it easy to understand the sequence of each chapter but you will still get a very thorough textbook experience. If you are planning to go into Pediatrics, this text may be a great investment to learn more intricate details and deeper reasoning behind management choices that the pure review books rarely delve into.
If you have time
Case Files Pediatrics — Toy et. al
Similar format to other Case Files texts with vignettes and explanations and some questions thrown in. Does a good job of going over the most high yield scenarios in pediatrics and explaining the management of each. The most current edition, however, has had some complaints of minor errors and not going as in-depth as need if using as a primary text. If you, however, have had good success with Case Files in the past and are already studying from BRS or crushing questions, Case Files Pediatrics is a fine secondary resource.
First Aid for the Pediatrics Clerkship — Stead, Kaufman & Waseem
While First Aid was the obvious review text of choice for Step 1, First Aid Pediatrics has a hard time playing the delicate balance of trying to remain comprehensive while maintaining enough details. First Aid Pediatrics does a good job of overviewing tested Pediatric topics; however, it is lacking in the number of details given for pathology. However, if used in conjunction with another text and used primarily to skim through material quickly, it does a great job of giving you the majority of what you need to know.