Nelson Pediatrics Board Review: Certification and Recertification 1st Edition

This was my primary study resource for regaining certification in ABP inGeneral Pediatrics after allowing it to expire six years ago when I decided to use all my continuing medical education efforts towards MOC in my pediatric sub-specialty. I am glad that I decided to regain my General Pediatrics certification and use this book. This board review book helped me regain old infrequently used but occasionally useful knowledge and learn about useful new developments outside of my specialty. Besides helping me pass the MOC ABP Prometric exam with a decent score on my first attempt, it has already helped me tobecome a better physician. It is surprising how often a sub-specialist has the first or best opportunity to address potentially serious medical problems outside of their sub-specialty.I have some recommendations for sub-specialist using this book for MOC recertification in General Pediatrics who, like me, do not have a history of test taking problems, and have not made recent efforts to keep up with general pediatrics.1. Allow 3-4 months to get through the entire book. I had only 3.5 weeks and it was difficult work getting through 40% of the book - enough for me to fairly easily pass the exam, but not enough to avoid being very stressed until I received my test result. Incidentally, I did not miss any questions in most of the areas I was able to study (the main exception was cardiology and dermatology, which I find particularly challenging). Pediatricians in high volume or academic practices that involve ER and/or inpatient general pediatric coverage, hospitalists, and pediatric intensivists probably need less time since they should know much of the material from their work experiences.2. I used the iPad version (free when the book is purchased) for review - much easier than trying to use the fairly large and heavy paperback. I had difficulty highlighting tables on the iPad. It would be great if this problem can be fixed. There are also first edition errors that I am sure will be fixed by the next edition.3. If I had to do a closed book general pediatrics certification exam again (which will probably not be the case, since from now on I can do MOCA - however, with this book available, I am not intimidated by the notion of taking the closed book exam again in five years should I choose that option), I would do the following:A. Read the chapters first, using highlighting as a way of increasing reading comprehension, while skipping the test questions.B. Then on the next go around, just do the questions, and during review of the answers, re-review associated reading material necessary to fully understand the answers.C. Then, one to two weeks before the test, do the free ABP General Pediatrics self assessment (also an easy way to pick up 10 category 2 MOC points) researching any incorrectly answered question, and questions where there was uncertainty about the subject area even if the question was answered correctly.D. Then, a couple of days prior to the exam re-review weak areas (for me, exanthems and cardiac murmurs) and focus on tables.4. If a sub-specialist is not having difficulty with MOC in their sub-specialty, and feels secure in their sub-specialty knowledge, they can probably skip the chapter relating to their specialty. I did so, and, yet, did not miss any questions in my specialty.Unlike many study guides, this study guide is very readable and of use in practice. I have continued to read it and use it in practice since finding out that I passed the exam.Incidentally, I am a former AAP Prep writer for my sub-specialty and have had access in the past to the AAP Prep General Pediatrics questions and critiques. For me, that format does not work well for closed book proctored exams - too much jumping between specifications without providing unifying views of subject areas. I much prefer this book’s more structured approach. This is what works for me - might be different for others.

love this book, the text is so overwhelming this is a great resource, worth the money

Clear and concise. All outline format. Goes well with the Medstudy question bank.

Amazing book for board review compared to the other commonly used books. Under advertised!The only draw back in my opinion, it lacks a separate section for neonatology.

Good to buy this prodcut. They should add fetus and neonate part too.

Good resource

Worth for money

I bought this book as part of my preparation for studying for the Pediatrics Board Examination. I am in an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency program and so have to effectively study for two boards. While the medicine boards are accompanied by an ample supply of well written review material that will sufficiently prepare (or overprepare) you for the exam, pediatrics has always fallen short in that regard. Unfortunately I do not think this book will fill in that missing gap.I will use the most popular board review text that is used for preparation for the medicine boards as a benchmark which is the MKSAP series of material. The breath and depth of this book is simply not adequate enough to prepare you for the pediatric board examination whereas MKSAP is more than sufficient for the medicine board exams. I will start out with the positives just to get those out of the way. The book is laid out in an easy to read bullet point format that is organized. The book also gives you a general overview of the material in case you need to quickly brush up on something that you haven't encountered in a long time. There is also a very easy to navigate online ebook that accompanies the text.Unfortunately the negative aspects of the book prevent it from being the much needed concise board review text that could be trustfully relied upon by those preparing for the pediatrics board examination. The content of the book is not of the amount of detail needed in order to prepare for the boards. Whereas MKSAP provides the right amount of detail in its text without dumping you with useless information, this book does the exact opposite. For example, it will tell you that "broad spectrum" antibiotics are needed in order to treat infective endocarditis without given you examples of such antibiotic regimens. Or the book might flood you with useless information while leaving out crucial facts needed for the exam. When discussing HOCM for example the book mentions that the EKG may show "arrhythmias" (don't most cardiac conditions have some sort of EKG abnormalities anyway?) but fails to even mention surgical treatment for the condition such as alcohol ablation for what is undeniably a very important topic in pediatrics.One thing that MKSAP does very well is that it provides a list of key points at the end of each section (test pearls if you will) that can provide a point of focus for the reader since those points will be what most likely shows up on exam questions. This book fails in that regard unfortunately. Additionally, the very few questions that accompany each chapter are of very poor quality. The questions tend to be written as "gotcha" questions relying on you to pick up on little facts in the previous chapter and so require rote memorization. They also have the tendency to be written in a very broad manner without providing you with information that would accompany a board question so that more than one answer can be technically correct. For example, in a question in which a patient had asymptomatic tachycardia, you were expected to differentiate between sinus arrhythmia and SVT without being provided with an EKG. Suffice to say these questions do not resemble board style questions.What is perhaps the most crucial missing element of this text and what should be fixed in as timely of a manner as possible is the fact that management recommendations are often not accompanied by text explaining whether such recommendations are "hard" or "soft" recommendations based on current expert opinion and evidence. Whereas MKSAP does a very good job of pointing out which recommendations are very strong recommendations based on current consensus (and thus likely to show up on the exam) and which ones do not have a consensus (and thus won't likely be tested), this book fails in that regard. All in all the book does provide a very good general overview of pediatrics that can perhaps be used by pediatric interns who are starting out and need to brush up on their knowledge. However, in order for it to be used as part of a board review regimen, it needs to be accompanied by other review material that will fill in the gaps such as the AAP PREP questions or MedStudy. Due to fact that the currently available board review texts for the pediatrics board examination are not of the same caliber as texts for other board exams, this book will probably be your best bet since it seems to be the most concise thus far although that isn't saying much.Update 03/26/020: After purchasing MedStudy for my pediatrics board exam preparation, I have realized that this text is grossly inadequate at preparing you for the exam, much moreso than I had before. As I mentioned above, the breadth and depth of the text is simply not enough to prepare you for the exam. However, after purchasing MedStudy I have also noticed that there are entire topics that are missing and could very likely to show up on your pediatrics board examination. For example, Familial Mediterranean Fever is not mentioned even once in the text! Nor is something as frequently tested as anomalous origin of the coronary artery. I don't even want to think of all of the other important topics that are missing from this book. Therefore, in light of this revelation, I have decided to change my review from 3 stars to 2 stars given the large pieces of missing critical information. I implore prospective examiners who are studying for their board exam to look into the MedStudy series of pediatrics board review texts since I have found them to be much more comprehensive, organized, and easy-to-read compared to Nelson's Pediatrics Board Review.