Any additional books you recommend?

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Specializes in ICU.

I'm starting nursing school in the Fall and wondering if there are any books that you recommend I buy for school. For example, I just bought the Saunder's NCLEX review book because I have seen it recommended so many times. Are there any books (RN pocket guide, Taber's encyclopedia, made incredibly easy, etc) tat you recommend. I know a lot of people say not to spend the extra money because you do t ave tie to read, but if there's some that are highly recommended, I want to at east try and find a used copy for cheap. Thanks!

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I recommend the Success books, such as Fundamental Success, Med-Surg Success, etc. They are great to help you figure out how to answer nursing test questions, and the rationales are great to figure out why the answer is right or wrong.

If you have a med-surg book (ours was Ignativicius, aka "Iggy") you can see if it has a clinical companion. It has the most pertinent information for each disease/topic and is good for a quick last review before an exam.

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Specializes in Hospice.
I recommend the Success books, such as Fundamental Success, Med-Surg Success, etc. They are great to help you figure out how to answer nursing test questions, and the rationales are great to figure out why the answer is right or wrong.

If you have a med-surg book (ours was Ignativicius, aka "Iggy") you can see if it has a clinical companion. It has the most pertinent information for each disease/topic and is good for a quick last review before an exam.

Thank you for that advice. I just went on amazon and ordered the success books for fundamentals and pharm. :up: Also, OP, I just read Caroline Porter Thomas' book "How to Succeed in Nursing School". I read it in a few hours on my kindle and it had lots of very useful advice. She also has youtube videos which have much of the same info as her book but I would rather download the book to my kindle than browse through you tube.

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Specializes in ICU.

What is the publisher and/or writer of the success books? Does anyone have anything to say about the made incredibly easy series?

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Specializes in Operating Room.

The only books I've bought outside of the books my program requires (for first semester) are Saunders NCLEX Review and Fundamentals Success. Saunders has a new version coming out in October, though, so I plan on buying that as well. I also bought pharmacology flash cards- they're called Pharm Phlash.

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I have the RN notes for clinical that i really like to just flip through and read. Also I enjoy the incredibly made easy series, however the only time I have bought one was for fluid and electrolytes (loved!). Besides that I thought the textbook and teachers were satisfactory in explaining it. Basically I would suggest either looking ahead in "difficult" areas and see if your book makes any sense or if you would need extra help, or just wait until you are coming up on the chapter to decide. Med-Surg Success Davis Q&A is very very helpful to me and most of my class mates.

If you have a smart phone I recommend Pocket Lab Values. (It is a red app with a syringe) It has all the lab values listed by system/panels and lists normal levels/critical levels, a description, and in what diseases it is often increased/decreased in. Since a lot of them vary by hospital/facility you can edit the values to fit where ever you are.

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Specializes in CMSRN.
I have the RN notes for clinical that i really like to just flip through and read. Also I enjoy the incredibly made easy series, however the only time I have bought one was for fluid and electrolytes (loved!). Besides that I thought the textbook and teachers were satisfactory in explaining it. Basically I would suggest either looking ahead in "difficult" areas and see if your book makes any sense or if you would need extra help, or just wait until you are coming up on the chapter to decide. Med-Surg Success Davis Q&A is very very helpful to me and most of my class mates.

If you have a smart phone I recommend Pocket Lab Values. (It is a red app with a syringe) It has all the lab values listed by system/panels and lists normal levels/critical levels, a description, and in what diseases it is often increased/decreased in. Since a lot of them vary by hospital/facility you can edit the values to fit where ever you are.

I highly recommend the RNotes flip book. It's fabulous for new students to see V/S info and things like that.

I also HIGHLY recommend LaCharity's Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment. It has Case Studies and specific chapters for different areas that you're working on it school. I can remember reading questions from the Neuro portion while we were doing Neuro in Med-Surg and to have learned something that I hadn't seen at all in class. And I got the question right on the test. Plus it will help you start to see and understand NCLEX questions. Good luck!

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Specializes in Pediatrics/Developmental Pediatrics/Research/psych.
The only books I've bought outside of the books my program requires (for first semester) are Saunders NCLEX Review and Fundamentals Success. Saunders has a new version coming out in October though, so I plan on buying that as well. I also bought pharmacology flash cards- they're called Pharm Phlash.[/quote']

Pharm phlash is very helpful in learning the classes of meds and similarities. If you need to do specific meds, get mediquik cards

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have you read "how to succeed in nursing school" by caroline porter thomas ?

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

The nursing school thrive guide is a little better than the porter Thomas book imo. If you can afford it, they're both OK reads though

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