Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, Sixth Edition

Easy to read fill in the blank book for any healthcare students!

I’m in an EKG Technician course and a friend who is a monitor tech recommended this book. She used it about 20 years ago, so I had my doubts, but it is spot on! It’s not your typical textbook where you can turn to chapter 3 and find topic X. You simply start reading and go from there. Each page has an illustration with a few points and fill in the blank questions for comprehension. Super awesome! Makes it make sense!

Hello: The most important reason I bought Dr. Dubin's Rapid Interpretation of EKG's was because I knew nothing about EKG's, and I wanted to learn not the basics, but the most important aspects of EKG. I am an EMT-Basic, but I often work on EMS with EMT-Paramedic level fellows, so my contact with EKG and patients with heart disease is very common. Looking for the wide variety of EKG books available, I realized that I needed a book that could not only teach the topics I really needed, but that would do it in such an easy way that an EKG newbie like me could end up understanding complex things as myocardial infarction and heart axis. Dr. Dubin uses a very interesting methodology for teaching. Each page of this book has a highly detailed practical illustration, and the rest of the page is composed of 3 o 4 parragraphs where, using the most practical language available, he explains the concepts related to the illustration. It is impressive how Dr. Dubin manages to explain complicated things so easily by using the detailed illustrations and the correct language. What's more, Dr. Dubin focuses on making the reader understand why an EKG tracing looks the way it does, and does not rely on memorization of the morphology of waves to justify a diagnose. This is critically important, because once you see an EKG tracing, you clearly understand the details of the pathology showed and that gives you a precise idea of what's happening inside that patient's heart and what treatment can help the patient's outcome. If you want to introduct yourself into EKG's, then this is the book you need. But don't misunderstand, this book is not basic, it really deals with complex topics too; the thing is that they seem so easy... This book has really helped me perform better on my job in the pre-hospital setting, and I'm really grateful about that.

I got this gem 4 days ago and I’m already at least 1/3 the way through it. I’m a new nurse using this before I take ACLS certification, and I prefer to really understand how and why something is than just memorize a certain framework. I “got” ekgs enough to pass nursing school and the NCLEX but this book is fantastic and so detailed and actually interesting. I feel so much more knowledgeable already, like I could look at a strip and understand where and what is happening- so that’s awesome! I can’t wait to finish and I would recommend this to anyone in the medical field who feels like a dummy about EKGs. I would say it only requires the basic level of knowledge of at least an emt with ekg exposure or one in medical/nursing school with anatomy/physiology courses completed. Although he will break everything down (quickly) in the start, I think you have to have a solid knowledge of the autonomic nervous system and some other concepts to really utilize this book to its full potential- but you could definitely improve your knowledge regardless but will miss some major eggs. each page restates similar/related information in a very logical and emphasized way that is great for recall. BUT NOTE: this fantastic book (the one I received, 6th ed) was printed in 2000. Most if not all of the information I’ve read so far is basic/time-tested material; but 18 years is a small lifetime of evidenced based knowledge. I would think mostly pharmacological treatment algorithms would be changed the most but I haven’t reached that part (if it’s even in the book), but that’s not why I got this book- I will master those after getting this awesome base! You rock, Doctor Dubin!

Ok, so I've been an ER nurse for roughly 3 years now and thought I had my rhythm identification down pretty well. I purchased this book at the recommendation of my ER doc and did not think I would get too much out of it. Boy was I wrong. When you first start reading this book you'll be dismayed as it seems somewhat simple. You look at the picture on the page, read a few sentences and then answer a few questions. Rinse and repeat every page. The first 5-8 chapters I thought that i wasted my money. By chapter 10 or so I was learning things i didn't know before. In the middle of the book i was hooked fully. After reading it a few times and refreshing parts I did not understand fully, I feel very confident in my EKG abilities. On multiple occasions I have argued with cardiologists about rhythms (and won). I think that if you have a basic understanding of the human anatomy and baseline knowledge of how the heart works this book will be an asset. The learning method used is easy to digest and builds upon itself in such a way that the information is reinforced. Very happy with this purchase and will recommend it to anyone asking.

Great book to learn EKG’s I love the last few pages for a quick review. It was very helpful during my cardiology rotation (I’m a pediatric resident).

I bought this book awhile ago as a second year medical student and read it during my cardiology block where it was cool but somewhat over my head. I'm re-reading it now as a 4th year going into Emergency Medicine and this book has proven its worth. I've been handed EKGs to review frequently and I find I can read them systematically just fine from my old reading of this book but even more so now I can actually look at an EKG identify a junctional vs. an atrial premature beat and really read and remember the physiology as I look at an EKG. It's written simplistically- it's a quite easy read but the words simple as they are teach advanced concepts that require you to re-read the page sometimes. It's definitely a book I'm going to re-read a couple of times to ensure I have my skills down pat before I go onto other sources (like EKG-Maven- a fantastic online resource recommended by many of the EM physicians who've taught me). So buy this if you're looking for a solid foundation and are willing to put in the time and effort to learn to read an EKG, and are okay with learning as simplistically as possible. (Personally I used to wonder what people would think seeing a med student reading a large font, cartoonish, "easy" looking book. I stopped worrying about that a while ago. Now I go for the easiest resource to learn from).

This book is by far the best resource available for learning to interpret EKGs. I've heard people are turned off by the simplicity of the book, but that is its best feature. Its written so that even those with the least amount of medical education can understand. There is no use in making things more difficult than they need to be. This book was written to teach the interpretation of EKG's, it does just that and nothing more. And it does it better than anything else I've seen. Its written in short sentences that do away with the extraneous material and strike right to the core of the important information. Often the sentences will have a blank where you have to fill in the word (the correct word is listed next to it in the margin). This really just serves to maintain your focus while reading, and it does its job. I've come across few books in medical school that I will keep throughout my career, this is certainly one of them. Its so easy to read, understand, and actually presents the important information with emphasis on understanding and not just memorizing patterns or numbers, etc. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who needs skill in reading EKG's.