Does anyone know of a good source other than the class book for reviewing things such as differential diagnoses, cardiology, pharmacology, and just general good study material before starting Paramedic school. Ideally I would like to find some kind of abridged book that cuts all the fluff out, read it to have things relatively fresh in my head when class starts. Any direction would help, thank you.
How much time do you have??? I'm actually quite serious about this! If you have a whole bunch of time on your hands, I would suggest taking a full year of college-level A&P. If you don't have that much time, consider taking a single semester-long version. Those are more of a "survey" course that gives you the basics but doesn't get too in-depth. You'd find the full year more valuable in terms of knowledge. You'll also want to take a medical terminology course, a Gen Psych course, a microbiology course, and...
What I'm getting to is that you should look at your local nursing and allied health programs for what they require as entry prerequisites. I'm not suggesting that you should consider those other programs, rather look at those as a source for what should be the start of a strong foundation in the sciences and that will make Paramedic school much easier.
If you don't have that much time available, at least take a trip to your local Barnes & Noble (or other very large big-box book store) and check out their selection of nursing and medical reference guides. Dubin's (above) is an excellent reference and should be very informative. One book I found helpful is called "The 60 Second EMT" and it may be out of print or at least difficult to find. It's scenario based and it does involve a fictional wizard of a Paramedic that teaches you some things to look for, and more importantly, teaches you to
think when you're out on a call. A bit of the medicine involved is dated, but the
thinking part is gold.
In any event, the more education you have in normal A&P, the easier it'll be when you start thinking about abnormal A&P.... called pathophysiology. The better you get at the normal stuff, you'll start realizing that you're thinking about some of the more common differentials.
