Expensive Books!!

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I am starting the Nursing program Sept. 5th and I just bought the books that I need. WOW!! are they expensive... Plus I need 6 books for one class. I am sure this is normal but I am in a little shock right now!! Will this be the case for the next three years? Any advice will be helpful... Thanks:o

Specializes in Emergency.

Watch what you buy, some teachers list their books but don't even use them. It took me two years to learn this. I now have probably $1500-$2000 in books that were never used, that I'm about to put up on ebay. What a waste.

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Specializes in Neuro.

Yes, they are very expensive!! I had to have 16 books this semester, with an additional 4 that were recommended. I spent $1100. on books, plus another $400.00 for uniforms, supplies, etc. This does not include my stethoscope that I just got, nor my shoes that I am looking at. Nor the basic supplies like pens, paper, spiral notebooks and such.

They did say that we will use some of these books the next 3 semesters, but by the time I get to the 4th one, I will have had to get 18 more books, that are required. :( Yuck!!

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Here are my solutions to expensive nursing books:

1. Share! If you are in a program that does 8-week classes (i.e. half your class takes Maternal/Child Health(OB) while the other half takes Psych for 8 weeks, then the 2nd 8 weeks the classes flip flop), SHARE your books with a student you know from the opposite class. You'll both only have to purchase one text (which tend to be the most expensive), and unless you REALLY want to have both books as references (trust me, you don't -- you can find better, more concise and easy to navigate references online and in smaller, cheaper texts), you'll save a chunk of $$$.

2. (Only use this "tip" if it is allowed by nursing instructors!) If your school's library has the texts available to use (usually not for checking out but for in-library-use-only), don't buy them! Read and take VERY good notes from the chapters as they are assigned, and save the money for new scrubs or gas to travel to and from clinicals. LOL.

3. Buy online, used. Check out all the used book sellers online, including amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, as well as college used book websites. You can save hundreds of dollars buying used. And while the schools list the text required as the most current version, you can OFTEN get away with using an older version. It may not have a few updated paragraphs or chapters, but refer to tip #2 (using library texts) to catch what you're missing.

IF you buy the texts, and aren't going to need them in the following courses, sell them! Post them for free on amazon.com and as long as you ask for a competitive price, you can get some good $ for them (you can usually also sell them in the college bookstore used, though I got a lot more money selling all my nursing books on amazon.com than my friends did in the bookstore -- amazon even gives you a cash credit to pay for shipping themselves!). And if you want a bonus graduation present, you can always keep all the books you bought, and sell them after you graduate (which guarantees you don't get rid of something that an instructor might ask you to bring to class 2 semesters later... LOL).

Cash in on these things any way you can. When I was in school, I thought "Oh, I'll keep these ones... they're such good references! I'll be able to refer to them all the time!" -- now I look at a box in the basement when I run downstairs on occasion and think, "I don't even want to mess with those!" When I want to look something up, whether it be "how to do a thorough neuro assessment" or "ABG interpretation" or "symptoms of psych meds", I get on the internet and Google it. More information than I could imagine using is at my fingertips, for free, up to date and current, and I don't have to deal with papercuts, old info, or flipping through an index and searching for the specific information I need in tiny text.

:) Good luck, future nurses!

-A

***I forgot one more tip: while you are a 1st year student, talk to the students in their advanced years of school for nursing!! See if anyone wants to see you their used books for cheap! AND, talk to nurses you work with!!! A lot of them will probably have a book or two that THEY kept for a reference and will be willing to let you borrow it until you no longer need it for the nursing program! And for reference type books, only buy what you REALLY need. Diagnostic manuals, nursing care plans, etc are all valuable tools, but only buy ONE drug book for the entire program, and save what you can by (again) using the references available in the school library or nursing office library (usually nursing programs have a student center/lab specifically for nursing students only and will have all or most of the books required available for student use while in the lab -- these are great money-savers!).

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Specializes in Neurosciences, cardiac, critical care.

Use amazon or half.com!! I have gotten all of my nursing or science books there for WAYYY cheaper. Another trick I use is to get one edition back- I have never experienced any changes (except the cover and sometimes page numbers) between two consecutive editions. I have saved hundreds of dollars this way.

On the other hand, I don't mind dishing out because I know most of these books I will use for reference/review in the future.

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My first year was very expensive. Did not know than but do now is, if you can buy them on line do so. I bought from ebay or half.com.

Some books my instructors have not yet used. I am playing on graduating in less than 14 weeks. What I have also learned is that by going on this site and researching what other students like to use.

I think you will find a favorite supplemental book, like I have.

Good Luck and God Bless.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Immediate Care.

WOW!! I think you just saved me a few hundred dollars :)

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Hello sister nursing student,

I spent over 1000.00 the first quarter. (Many of the books we will use throughout nursing school) They were in a book bundle. Then I ended up buying a Taber's and a few optional books so the first quarter was quite the shock. The next quarter I thought we wouldn't have as many. The book bundle was only 300 but then I had to buy a Diagnostics and Lab book, and a drug guide and I just spent 115 on my nurse pack. So this was about 600.00. Ouch again. :bugeyes:

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One way to save tons of money is to buy a used copy of the previous edition of the the book. Go to a site like Amazon and type in the author's name or book title. You will almost always get a listing of all of the editions out there. If your instructor is using the 5th edition, get the ISBN for the 4th. Then use that to find a copy at one of the used booksellers (like Abe books). Used copies of books for which there is a new edition are very nearly worthless, and you can often find a nearly-new book for only a dollar or two. It can cost more to ship the book (usually in $3.99 range) than the book itself costs. I rarely pay more than $10 using this method and often find new texts (still of the previous edition) for less than $25.

The texts themselves change very little from edition to edition but you do take a bit of a risk. I once bought a copy of the text for a micro course that was an "abridged" edition and did not have the final 2 chapters that the assigned edition did (I borrowed a text from a classmate and photocopied the needed pages from those chapters). The only consistent issue is that the pages assigned in your syllabus will probably not be the same in your edition of the text. This is really just an inconvenience - the information will still be there, you'll just have to look around a bit for it.

I calculated that my total out-of-pocket cost for books for my ADN were less than $350. I'm a quarter of the way through my RN-BSN and so far have spent less than $35 for books (this semester's book was $5.99, incl shipping). YMMV though . . .

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