Medical terminology vs medical dictionary?

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I bought a medical terminology textbook to review before my clinical program starts this fall. I was also planning on buying a medical dictionary, but I am wondering if I should really get both. Have any of you compared the practical values of these books? Which was more valuable, and would you personally buy both? . Thanks for any opinions!!

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Many of the med dictionaries I have seen also have basic prefixes and suffixes for med terminology listed in the front or back of the book. I love the dictionary. We had a Taber's that came with our drug guide/dictionary/lab set. I already had a Mosby's, and I like the Mosby's a thousand times more than the Taber's.

Personally, if I could only choose one it'd be the dictionary. :D

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I own a Taper's medical dictionary as well, which came with me last semester to clinical's about 99% of the time, not my medical terminology book. Your med term book is just going to give you prefixes, suffixes, word roots, & a little definition of some conditions & is more organized you could say based on the unit covered or system your studying.

Compared to the medical dictionary it'll kind of be all over the place but with diseases, their etiology, treatment, contraindications, nursing notes, etc, all in alphabetical order. This book really helped me out a ton with my pathophysiology papers, needless to say my instructor was getting a little angry about my 7+ page pathophys papers lol.

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Don't really need it. You'll get it over time and if anything, google is your friend. Waste of space and excessive weight. Pocket clinical reference books were the only thing I carried as a student.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

medical dictionary's are free on the Intranet

Not the books, but the info

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medical dictionary's are free on the Intranet

Not the books, but the info

Yep. Although one should always be careful of internet sources, the first few Google hits on any given medical term suffice 99.9% of the time.

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