Buy or Rent Nursing Textbooks

[Meeh619]

Hi,

I start my nursing program in August and wanted to know what is better renting or buying when it comes to the actual nursing textbooks? I usually rent my textbooks but one of the nurses that I work with says she regrets not keeping her books, so now I'm wondering if I should buy them to keep as reference for later.

Another nurse said she wished they had a rent option when she went to school because she just gave all that "money away." In other words she had no use for them after school.

So what have all of you done? I really like renting but I'm torn apart on what to do! Did any of you need your textbooks after you were done with your classes? Have any of you who are nurses already used your books to look something up for work? If so, which books are the best or the ones I would most likely want to buy and keep? I kept my Nutrition book but I rarely look at it. Maybe I will once classes start or maybe not, I don't know!!

Any advice or experiences welcomed.

Thanks!!

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I sold all of mine after I took the NCLEX. Amazon makes it pretty easy. Getting ready to start BSN and I am going to rent this time.

If I saved all the text books I have used, I would need a new house LOL. BSN will be my 5th degree.

[anashenwrath, ASN, RN]

My program told everyone to buy (the most recent ed, of course), but I rented and had no problems. I take notes while reading text, so it worked out for me. And I found most of my classes relied more on the professor's slides than the text. Saved oodles of money. I don't think anyone ever had any conflicts with previous editions.

I did buy my Fundamentals book (Taylor) and my MedSurg (Brunner and Suddarth), and ended up keeping the latter just in case I need to brush up on anything while interviewing.

[Vishwamitr]

Most text-books are at the least 3 years old. I never bought or rented any nursing text-book. To me it seemed absurd to buy/rent expensive books which do not have re-sale value like yesterday's newspaper. With almight internet at your finger-tips, to me it seemed preposterous to buy/rent text-books. I passed my NCLEX in first attempt despite them. I am not asking you to do the same though.

I "created" my own books for ready reference and for studying for the Board Exam.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Buy used on half.com or amazon if you want to save money. I once bought a book on half.com for something like $8 and then sold it back to my school at the end of the semester for $32.

My books that I haven't sold are collecting dust in my mother's garage.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I got a lot of money for my textbooks when I sold them on Amazon. Well worth it.

[Benedina]

I bought the ones I wanted, such as my med-surg book, my pharm book, and my clinical diagnostics book, all of which I still use. I borrowed the rest from the library. (In grad school, too.) If I liked it, I then bought it, preferably used, preferably from the locally owned bookstore to try to keep them in business. (Yes, more expensive than Amazon.)

Dina

[zoe92]

I have always rented for pre reqs but for my first semester of nursing classes, I bought all my books on Amazon. I figure this way they are mine no matter what. Amazon also helped me save a lot of money. I am a prime member because I can get free shipping then.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

The only book that I only needed for one semester was my fundamentals book. I bought them all. Also, if you rent you usually don't get the access code that comes with many books nowadays.

By the way, if you have a .edu email address, you can get six months free Amazon student with free two day shipping.

[Chrono, BSN, RN]

I generally put whatever books we'd need next semester on a wishlist on Amazon and I'd check the list twice a day to every other day for drops in the prices. Doing this I got a great deal of text books for only 1-1.5x the rental price. I also have a Giant Eagle card that I would use when purchasing Amazon gift cards from their store to buy my books (Fuel perks), as well as a Discover card to purchase the gift cards. I'd also sometimes purchase them used instead if I felt that I wouldn't need the online materials for the course. In my program we made use of those online materials for only the Fundamentals class really (to watch the procedure videos).

[swansonplace]

I bought my books sometimes getting older used version which saved money. One thing is for sure for me I tried not to scrimp on learning tools because it makes studying harder. By that I mean, I would often buy extra books, like care plan book for class, computer testing software, davis success books, reviews and rationales. It was my books and tools that really helped me to get through so I would purchase what was needed and more as an investment.

[medic0681]

Buy online and then resell online ie: amazon, half. a book may only cost you say $ 20 in the long run when that is all over

[apina74]

I bought all my books from amazon or ebay. I went to amazon first and took a "LOOK INSIDE" on some of them. I also asked the teachers in orientation which books can we get that are a previous edition. My books should have come to about $900 if I got them all from the campus bookstore, but in all, I paid about $400. I bought one or two at a time, and sometimes amazon let's you "trade" them back for amazon gift cards. I would buy, not rent. example: I got the brunner and suddarth textbook of medical surgical nursing (that is being sold for $100-200) for $26.00 on ebay, and this was the current, required edition.