How to Use the Taber's Medical Dictionary

Taber's Medical Dictionary is a well-regarded reference book for medical definitions and explanations, used by medical professionals and students alike in hospital and school settings. Taber's is accessible through online subscription or downloadable to your cell phone, and can be obtained in hard copy form. To use the online and cell phone application, you must have paid access.

Instructions

• 1

  Feature finder is Taber's way of making your search easier.

  Find what you're looking for easier with Taber's feature finder. Placed directly behind the introduction, the "feature finder" provides an illustration of how Taber's is laid out and how it is best used. In addition, Taber's uses a two-system format to help you find a word more easily, along with its related terms. A single-word format is used for a main entry. For example, the word "Cell" is followed by its definition and a yellow-highlighted section to denote related terms.

• 2

  The tabs help you find a word more quickly in the Taber's Medical Dictionary.

  Use the tabs to find the medical term you are searching for more easily. The tabs are alphabetical and subdivided further based on the first few letters of the word. Taber's also offers non-tabulated medical dictionaries, arranged alphabetically with words listed at the top of each page.

• 3

  Taber's Medical Dictionary has an extensive image section.

  Search the Taber's medical image section to get a visual of how a particular body part or condition might look.With each new edition, over 700 images are provided free on DVD to supplement the dictionary's illustrations. Taber's places an icon of a DVD at the end of each illustration entry if it is on the DVD. If there isn't an icon, a page number is featured instead.

• 4

  Search Taber's Nursing Diagnoses index, at the back of the dictionary, for the most popular diseases/ disorders and medications related to nursing. Taber's has allotted a separate section just for nurses and nursing students..

• 5

  Often when you search one word, it will provide information on related topics.

  Cross-reference diseases easily with Taber's alerts, recognized by the words "SEE" ( in red caps) "related terms." If the cross-reference is an image, the alert will say "SEE :illus" and its location.

• 6

  Read the "Patient Care" section at the end of condition-related terms to learn more about that condition and how to provide care. According to the most recent Taber's Edition 21, 85 percent of the Patient Care entries have been expanded and revised.