Saving notebooks

Nurses New Nurse

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Specializes in Primary Care.

I recently bought a house and moved (yay!), and as I'm trying to find a place for everything, I'm slowly building a pile of notes and study materials from nursing school and don't have anywhere to put them. I'm usually not one to "throw away" school materials, but I haven't touched them since I graduated in December and I don't have anywhere to store them. I kept all my textbooks, which are neatly sitting on a large bookshelf.

So, my question for other nurses: Do you ever reference any of your notes (powerpoint lectures, handwritten notes, handouts, etc.), or since I have all my textbooks are the notes I have overkill? I'm thinking I should just just save myself some grief and get rid of all the extra papers since it's been 8 months since I touched them.

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I also graduated in December. I pitched my notebooks, power points, etc and just kept my books.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Even books become obsolete in a few years.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Precepting, Education.

I would suggest that you get rid of your notes and powerpoints. All the information in them can be accessed in your books or online. I would also suggest going through your books and selling some. I knew that I would never work in OB or psych so I sold my maternal health book along with my mental health book. I kept my physical assessment, fundamentals of nursing, and a few other books that cover broad topics. If you wait too long to sell books they can quickly become outdated and you'll get a poor return for them.

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I kept all my notes and study materials. I have been unemployed for awhile and find it necessary to review, review, review. My study guides and notes from school, my textbooks, by DVD's from textbooks, flashcards, NCLEX review books, everything --- all have been invaluable in keeping knowledge fresh or learning/relearning. I consolidated my notebooks and keep it all organized for quick reference. I don't know about you, but I'm sure I didn't absorb 100% of the material we zoomed through in nursing school.

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They have been sitting in a box for the last decade. Untouched. Moved across Canada twice.

I need to down to the basement and dump the box.

Unopened.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I saved all of my notes until I passed the NCLEX, then they went into recycling. I have most of them saved on my computer anyway.

I kept all of my textbooks after graduation...I'm glad I kept them as I used many of them for my RN-BSN program. Over the years I've gotten rid of a few here and there as they've gotten out of date or I didn't have any plans to use them.

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Specializes in Primary Care.

Thank you everyone! I'm going through each and keeping syllabi and graded work, and the rest will become firestarter! It feels pretty liberating :)

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Specializes in Oncology.

Just graduated May 2013. Went thru my notes & decided I didn't need them after I passed NCLEX; also sold back virtually all of my books for pennies on the dollar -- but hey, every penny counts, right? I feel pretty strongly that anything technical that we need to know will be available online, on the units we hire in on, or in more updated books. Hoping that is correct -- but I have limited space, and trying not to hang onto unnecessary stuff! If it's useful and/or I love it, then happy to keep it around. And although I absolutely LOVED nursing school (almost every minute of it!), I found I didn't love my books or my notes enough to let them gather dust...

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