Which medical dictionary is best???

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Hello all! I have just began my first semester of nursing school this fall and our clinicals just started. I need to purchase a medical dictionary that I can look up medical diagnoses and find out the purpose of labs, ect. What would you recommend to be most useful throughout nursing school?

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I really like Taber's Medical Dictionary. It explains the disease process, signs and symptoms, and how a condition is usually treated. I would buy a used copy on Amazon cause they can be pricey. Good luck!;)

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Taber's is great. If you purchase the book, you get a free 1-year subscription to Taber's online, too.

Edit: I just checked Amazon. Taber's is priced at $31.19. That's very reasonable for what you get :)

http://www.amazon.com/Cyclopedic-Medical-Dictionary-indexed-Indexed/dp/0803612079/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0110643-0688036?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193329004&sr=8-2

http://www.tabers.com/

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Specializes in ER, Occupational Health, Cardiology.

I'm with the others about Taber's. As a matter of fact, it was one of the books that we were required to have for my LPN program. You also might want to get a copy of The Merck Manual. It gives synopsis and tx of most known diseases, as well as lab values, etc.

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I have a Taber's and a Mosby. I really love the Mosby, it really tends to "dumb down" a definition compared to Tabers. Which was a bit more helpful when you are just learning.

the Taber's has a great section for NANDA dx and such. The Mosby has GREAT pictures so you can get a grasp of whats being defined.

Draw back to the Mosby...its a BIG book, definatly not pocketsized. they do have the pocket version but it doesn't have all the sections the hard cover does. Draw back to Tabers, pages are like bible pages..very fragile, tiny print.

If at all possible and you can afford both..I'd recommend getting both. I keep my tabers in my clinical bag and my mosby home.

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I always took my Taber's to clinical to share . . . there was always some odd term or diagnosis to look up.

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Specializes in MICU/SICU.

I have Taber's, and later got Mosby's...I like the Mosby's far better - it's much bigger, with lots of photos, and there's things in there that I had to reference for school that weren't in Taber's...I keep a software version of Taber's in my PDA for clinic, but for hitting the books there's nothing like Mosby's.

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Specializes in RN- Med/surg.

I think Mosby's hands down. I had one (can't remember what- I rarely used it)..and my clinical site had Taber's, but where I worked had the new Mosby's. I'd wait and go to work to do homework because it was SO helpful. And..interesting. I'd sit and read the med dictionary during down time at work it was so cool. Lots of pictures...and rarely gave a definition of "see xxx"

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

Love my Taber's!

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Taber's has never let me down!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Homecare, UR, Case Mgt.

Taber's without a doubt.

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mosby's was my bible in school.

wouldn't try anything else.

leslie

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