Medical Reference Dictionary?

Nursing Students General Students

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I just picked up some of the books for my first full-time semester in nursing:) ... one of the required books is a hardcover version of Mosby's Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary. Is this book recommended? Spending as much money on this thing as I am, I'd rather buy a competing dictionary if a better one is out there.

I'm feeling prejudiced against it because we used Mosby's Textbook for Nursing Assistants for my CNA course, and I thought it was a terribly written book. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Specializes in ICU.

There are other medical dictionaries out there, The trouble is some are more like an normal language dictionary givng you just an expanation of the word and some are like the "Merck manual" you can find on the search drop down menu at the bottom of the page.

Mosby's is required for ours as well.

I have looked through it - it doesn't seem too bad. You can read reviews about it at Amazon.com

Medical dictionaries are all pretty similar. Try to get some of your books on half.com or similar sites that offer used text books. You'll have hundreds of dollars. My bargain of the semester back in December was paying something crazy like $8.70 for a book that our school book store wanted $90.00 for. It was an older edition, but so what, the information is still the same. Some other good sites to look into are textbookx.com, campusi.com, and alphcraze.com. All you need is the title or the ISBN # is you have it. Happy shopping!

Specializes in Adult Med-Surg, Rehab, and Ambulatory Care.

Mine is Taber's I think...(FA Davis)

Thanks Carolanne! I'm going to remember to compare prices online first. From the books available so far, I can save $20. I've still got half the books for one class that aren't in yet, and two more classes with no books in yet. Hopefully I can save some $$$$$!

Specializes in Emergency.

I didn't care for Mosby's either. I bought the Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health. I can't remember how much I paid for it, but I liked it better - still use it!

It's recommended at our school, but during registration/orientation when they handed the list out, they told us that if we already had a med. dict., not to worry with the Mosby's.

When I started we were required to get Tabers.

Specializes in Critical Care (ICU/CCU).

I have the Mosby's that you're talking about...I needed it for a Medical Terminology class I took last semester...I wish I would of had it when I took Anatomy and Phys because it has good pics...however it did come in handy for Microbiology...now we'll see what it'll do for me this semester!

We have a list of like 10 books to purchase for the first semester nursing classes. I haven't bought mine yet because the bookstore hasn't put them out on the shelves yet!! So much for trying to get a jumpstart on reading :o)

Marci

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