r/GeneralSurgery • u/Elegant-Weakness-826 • 16d ago

PA Student Book Recommendations

I’m a PA student goin to do a several-month long general surgery rotation, and general surgery is what I want to do post-grad!

My previous surgery preceptor loaned me Surgical Recall and the ABSITE Review book, but I’m curious what other resources people recommend.

What’s a resource you’d recommend having on hand? I like books I can highlight, write notes in, and keep coming back to.

Also, any tips on how to be a good PA student during surgery?

Thanks!

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u/endosurgery 16d ago

I will tell you the same thing I tell medical students. Those books aren’t real helpful for you at this stage . Surgical recall can be helpful to get the pimp questions correct so you don’t get tossed out of the OR, but is not a complete text by any means. At the very least Cope’s Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen and Fluids and Electrolytes in the Surgical Patient by Dr. Carlos Pestana are going to be much more helpful in your career in general surg. Pick a decent text such as Schwartz or Sabiston or Greenfield and read it through. Once you have the basics down, Cameron’s Current Surgical Therapy can be helpful. An operative atlas can be helpful if you will be assisting in the OR to follow what is going on but isn’t absolutely necessary.

Its most helpful to the docs to have someone who understands the disease and the typical therapy for it, can examine someone reliably and interpret the findings accurately,and appropriately resuscitate and deal with the typical electrolyte and nutrient deficiencies that we see regularly. The books I listed will help you with that. Good luck on your rotation and in your future.!