Buy or Rent Nursing Textbooks

Nursing Students General Students

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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!!

I buy my textbooks from Textbooks.com, usually at half the price of new books. Then at the end of the semester, I choose the ones I want to keep and sell back the rest. Many of the books they buy back at half the price I bought them for which is often equivalent to renting. They also tell you from the beginning which books they will guarantee buy back on!

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To get back to your original post, renting or buying depends on what type of nurse you want to be. For pre-req's I always advise nursing students to buy their A&P, Biology, Chemistry and Patho books. You will use these if you become a RN in a specialized field (ICU, Trauma, Burn, OB, ER and Surgery) and in the future if you want to become an APRN (NP, CRNA, Nurse Midwife). For nursing school books, there was a huge waste of money buying books I have not even looked at since graduating from college. The books you should rent or share with other nursing classmates are nursing research, community health, professional development and cultural health nursing books (unless you want to do one of those things as an RN). DEFINITELY buy your medical-surgical, pharmacology, genetics and physical assessment books (These will help you out tremendously in whatever field you choose a future hospital RN). The rest of the books are better if rented or bought used. Good luck!

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I buy the older edition books. If the school asks for edition 10, I buy edition 9 for 90% less money. It has never negatively affected me. Buying the older edition is cheaper than renting in my experience. Try amazon.com, Abe.com, and cheap textbooks.com. Amazon usually wins out for me but depending on your book you might find another website better.

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Good day:

Amazon.com has a student prime membership where you get free two-day shipping.

For the fall semester, I've been using abebooks.com and Amazon.com The other sites mentioned, at least for the books I need when you add in shipping costs, generally go above either site. Of note, some of the sites take 2 to 3 weeks for actual delivery; so you want to keep that in mind with your planning.

Thank you.

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Thanks everyone!! I finally got my list. Buying will be about $250 not including a code I need for $266 :(

Renting will be $120 or so but like many of you mentioned I could sell them back & it would come out to about the same!!

Thanks for everyone's advice!!!

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Congrats, I actually brought my books off of people from the previous class, which saved me Hundreds! The students felt they had no use for them and just wanted to get something back for them since they paid soo much. Since they was the graduating class right before mines the same books where use. But one of the textbks was updated version for my class, but like someone stated, no huge difference.. for me the page number for the material was different for the new version. Happy I brought and no rented b/c I refer back at times.

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Thanks to the person who mentioned that prime on amazon I got free shipping on like 3 of my books. And someone else mentioned bigwords.com that site is awesome also. I like that u can add All your books then looks for the cheapest outcome!! Hopefully others get something off this thread!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Long Term Care.

I bought mine new and used but am reselling some of the ones I know I won't necessarily need all the time like my OB book, health assessment, and research methods. I plan on finding one or two books that cover them all generally instead of having like 6!

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In our program, we tend to use the books from earlier classes in later classes, so I recommend buying them because you will need them again. I'm also a big highlighter/note taker in my books, and I love to have them for references for subsequent classes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. You will be held accountable for everything you learned before, not like when you took history and memorized the presidents and then forgot it after the test. You will want those books, and they will assume you still have them.

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I buy ebook editions whenever possible. I hate paying for textbooks. I think I saved $500 for the upcoming semester. I use a book comparison site called allbookstores.com It searches ebay too which is almost always cheaper than bookstore sites if the item is available. Most book websites have coupons too so I check on tjoos.com for any coupons. The book publishers like Elsevier always have coupons and sometimes its easier/cheaper to just order direct. I think after the coupon is used on Elsevier.com it becomes very close to the price my bookstore pays. For anyone looking for price drops on Amazon. It will email you when the price drops below your target so you can snag a deal.

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does anyone know if the us edition and international edition are interchangeable!?

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