What books do you have on your desk?

Nursing Students Student Assist

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you do not have to break the bank to have a decent working library. for your first couple of years of practice you'll probably be fine with your med/surg texts and other references from school to go back and reread prn when you have a new kind of patient to work with. when a specialty chooses you (note: that's usually what happens, rather than the other way around-- all of a sudden you find that, oh, endocrinology or something has stolen your heart away) you will want to get some books on that to deepen your understanding, and by then you'll have learned enough that you will be able to learn more in depth about it and want to join the nursing professional orgs that work with it.

for general purposes, not counting my specialty books, i couldn't do without the nanda-i, most current edition, joyce lefever kee's absolute classic laboratory and diagnostic tests with nursing implications, and the 5-minute clinical consult, a sort of a reader's digest condensed of a bazillion diagnoses with shorthand reminders for everything you need to know about them. there's a taber's in here somewhere, and a gray's anatomy (the book, not the video). i also have the chicago manual of style and the slim, short, and sweet strunk & white's elements of style to help me when i forget how to write clearly.

i use books, not online sources for all these things, because generally when i need to look something up i need to use it right away, and i do not want to tempt my wandering brain with another link and another link and before i know it i'm playing angry birds again.

what's in your professional library?

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Let's move left to right...

I have The Well Designed Mixed Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust and Planting the Natural Garden by Piet Oudolf...because we all have to have hobbies and my previous profession is landscape.

Barron's Spanish-English Dictionary and the Borm Bruckmeier Medical Spanish Pocket Dictionary...because I am always encountering nursing and medical terms that I don't already know in Spanish. I also have NTC's Dictionary of Mexican Cultural Code Words because it's a really neat reference and great way to explain culture and language to people unfamiliar with Mexican culture.

I have Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong.

Now for the nursing-related material:

I have a several of Mary Ann Hogan's Reviews and Rationales and the Saunders Comprehensive NCLEX Review...because I do a lot of practice questions and these are the best review texts that I have laid hands on. There's also Nugent's Fundamentals Success, which is a great questions book for fundamentals.

Now a list...

Anne Abrams, Clinical Drug Therapy, Rationales for Nursing Practice which I got in a free pile of book, but I would have paid for if I had known how good it was.

Taber's and the Strunk & White's Elements of Style also.

Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy, which is beautiful and I recommend highly!

Marilynn Doenges, Nurse's Pocket Guide, which I rate a solid "meh" and I am constantly in search of a better care plan book.

Sharon Jensen, Pocket Guide for Nursing Assessment, which I rarely use but don't outright despise.

Potter & Perry, Fundamentals of Nursing which was alright, but I really love the Clinical Companion that accompanied the text. It's small and portable and has lots of useful, basic info.

Joyce LeFever Kee, Pharmacology which is a wonderful text.

Mosby's Nursing Drug Reference and Betty Gahart's IV Meds book which are both solid drug books.

Shannon Perry, Maternal Child Nursing Care which is too darn verbose and in need of a serious edit for unnecessary wordage.

Mary Townsend, Essentials of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing which is great text.

Mosby's Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests, which makes a fine door stop, but which I hate using.

and Lewis Med-Surg, which has I think is fantastic.

Now the list of books I would have on my desk is much larger, but I'm so broke!

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I have 50 shades darker.

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Specializes in SDU, Tele.

IV Therapy made incredibly easy--was so worth the money.

Pharmacology for Nursing Care by Lehne. It is such a huge book and it is not what was required for my pharm class but this book is 10 times better.

All the Reviews and Rationales series, honestly, lol.

Nursing Care Plans 7th edition by Gulanick. I love it to bits.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Great thread.

Primary Care: A Collaborative Practice (one of the best book put there in my opinion)

Bate's Guide to Physical Examination

Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics

The Harriet Lane Handbook

Bright Futures

And I couldn't leave out: UpToDate and Lexi-Comp online.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

I have my Med-Surg textbook, Davis's RN clinical reference book, Nursing2011 Drug Guide, Taylor's Fundamentals of Nursing, LWW's Q and A Nclex study guide, gardening reference books, and cooking books.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

I have my Bible, Core Curriculum for Pediatric Critical Care, Nursing Research, Staff Development Core Competencies - and (most importantly) The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.

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Whoa, whoa, WHOA!

Wait a minute. You mean to tell me there is a DESK under all of these books? ;-)

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Dosage Calculations, Nurse's Pocket Guide, Fundamental's Success, Nursing Care Plans, Saunders NCLEX Review, and How to survive and maybe even love nursing school :)

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Well, right now I've got a couple non-fiction books that I laughingly assumed I would get to read this semester. ^_~

I've got a couple of textbooks. "Understanding Pathophysiology" by Huether and McCance, which I despise. I prefer Elizabeth Corwin's Handbook of Pathophysiology instead, it's a little easier for me to grasp. UP is good because the Handbook doesn't always cover everything, and sometimes annoyingly, UP does - over the course of 300 pages of size 12 font. I suppose that could be the reason the book is 1000+ pages.

Health Promotion in Nursing by Maville & Huerta (it's okay, but a little dry, and I like health promotion), a generic pharmacology textbook, and La Leche League's The Breastfeeding Answer Book. The last one is not one of my textbooks, but a gem I found for free! It's an older edition though, I'm looking forward to getting a new one that has completely up to date information, though I am thinking it hasn't changed much over a couple of editions.

I also still have Kenneth Saladin's Anatomy & Physiology: the Unity of Form and Function. It makes another nice, easy reference if I need it.

There's about 5 ATI books too.

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"

pharmacology for nursing care by lehne. it is such a huge book and it is not what was required for my pharm class but this book is 10 times better. "

what's the best part about the pharm book? i'm always looking for extra references.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Lehne is a great book. We used it for grad pharm (along with G&G) as well as undergrad.

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