Rating: 
Summary: okay book
Review: This book is the best one on physical exam that I've found, but is not great by any means. It's very boring to read. Unfortunately, physical exam is something you have to practice, and reading a book won't help much. You have to SEE someone with experience perform an exam for it to really sink in.
I think it's way too expensive.
Rating: 
Summary: Still looking for a good physical exam book
Review: This book was written for no one in mind. It reads as a single run-on sentence from page one to the end. You cannot learn physical exam from it (or from any other book -- you simply have to practice) and Bates is a rather mediocre reference if you need to find out how to examine this or that.Physical exam is a dying art and I'm yet to find a semi-decent modern text on the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but maybe you'll want better.
Review: This is an excellent and thorough text on the physical exam. The only problem is that its based on "the way things have always been done" instead of emerging controlled trials evaluating H+P techniques objectively. You might consider purchasing one of the new evidence-based medicine physical exam texts that are beginning to pop up (Ask your docs about recommendations). Preview them first, because not all of them teach the actual techniques or present the differential diagnosis of findings as well as Bates. They do, however, actually include numbers (percentages, Likelihood ratios, etc) to tell you how sensitive and specific (read how useful) these methods really are. These numbers will be critical to you later in evidence-based practice (which is not what all physicians now practice) in order to determine the pre- and post-test (lab, X-ray, etc.) probabilities of your differential diagnoses.
Buying an evidence-based text now would save you from having to buy both like I did.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but maybe you'll want better.
Review: This is an excellent and thorough text on the physical exam. The only problem is that its based on "the way things have always been done" instead of emerging controlled trials evaluating H+P techniques objectively. You might consider purchasing one of the new evidence-based medicine physical exam texts that are beginning to pop up (Ask your docs about recommendations). Preview them first, because not all of them teach the actual techniques or present the differential diagnosis of findings as well as Bates. They do, however, actually include numbers (percentages, Likelihood ratios, etc) to tell you how sensitive and specific (read how useful) these methods really are. These numbers will be critical to you later in evidence-based practice (which is not what all physicians now practice) in order to determine the pre- and post-test (lab, X-ray, etc.) probabilities of your differential diagnoses.
Buying an evidence-based text now would save you from having to buy both like I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Registered Nurse and BSN Clinical Instructor
Review: This is an excellent textbook!!! I have used this book as a student and to help prepare my student for a health assessment check off and for their test. This book has been a valued resource in my library for the past 10 years. I have purchased 3 editions of this textbook over this period of time. I highly recommend this textbook for advanced students and professional healthcare members.
Rating:
Summary: comprehensive,thorough and excellent
Review: this is the best book for study at all levels of medical education with systematic examination tech. and a basic understanding of the underlying process preceeding ,giving the clinician a good review of the system in check and also important points for counselling which have to be touched upon before the encounter closes..
| 
