By Catherine Gracey and Hailey Wills

Now that the school year is well underway, the W.K. Kellogg Health Science Library is pleased to highlight resources that can help you prepare for learning and clinical placements, as well as practice for upcoming licensing exams. The Clinical Specialties Guide contains a study tools section that details many of the key resources across the Health Sciences, including media resources, a list of reference books, calculators, fast facts, and clinical practice guidelines. Listed in the guide is The Secrets Series, comprised of books containing question-and-answer content on numerous clinical specialties and topics. In our print collection, there are several physiology and anatomy-focused colouring books that can supplement your studying. These can be found by searching the Novanet catalogue for “colouring book” and narrowing the search to “DAL Health Science Library” using the filters on the left side of the screen, or by visiting us in-person at the Tupper Medical Building.

Acland’s Video Atlas and Anatomy.tv are both tools that can be useful for studying anatomy. Acland’s has 5 volumes of anatomy videos that feature real human cadavers, and an affiliated quiz for each volume. To access the quizzes, simply create a personal account using your Dalhousie email. Anatomy.tv has an extensive and interactive 3D atlas of the human body and a quiz with various settings for question types and difficulty. You can also download a variety of Health Mobile Apps, including Medscape, which contains simulations and quizzes.

Of particular interest to students in Medicine, you have access to BoardVitals, an effective medical exam review tool. After registering register with your Dalhousie email address, browse questions by clicking on “My Dashboard” on the top right-hand corner of the screen and select either USMLE Step 1, 2, or 3, or choose from specialized question banks in various specialties. Once you have selected your question bank, you can browse, start a quiz, and track your performance.

Access Medicine is another popular resource that also offers practice questions. With its Clinical Practice & Board Review questions and flashcards on multiple topics (found under the Study Tools dropdown menu), there are a variety of options to help with your studies. You can design custom questions based on Katzung & Trevor’s Pharmacology: Examination and Board Review, a key textbook in Pharmacology, among many other core texts. To do this, navigate to the book and locate “Go to Review Questions” under the title. From there, you can generate a random quiz, or build a custom version by selecting the number of questions you would like from various topics.

Bates’ Visual Guide and Jarvis Physical Assessment Video series can also support your studies, specifically in physical examination and assessment preparation, including for OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations). Finally, Mosby’s Video Series and Films on Demand will be of particular interest to those in nursing, as they contain useful nursing skill demonstrations.

No matter your program or year of study, we are here to support you in your learning and research endeavours. Don’t hesitate to contact us by email at kellogg@dal.ca, by telephone at (902) 717-5244, or by stopping into our locations in the Collaborative Health Education Building or the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building. Happy studying!