My school says to only buy books from their bookstore...

Nursing Students General Students

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In almost every piece of correspondence I have received since I was accepted to my program (which I will be starting next month), it has been mentioned for us not to buy ANY of our 15 books used OR online or anywhere besides the school. The reasons cited are that we won't get the access codes then and it will end up costing even more to get them.

If I purchase books from a third party that are designated as "Brand New", I shouldn't have an issue right? I don't know why there are pushing it so hard. I actually had called the program director for a question on some of my paperwork before and she even mentioned not to purchase any books until after out "boot camp" nursing program orientation because we might not get the right books.

Maybe I am misunderstanding, but I have been purchasing books from elsewhere for the past two years while completing my pre-reqs and I think I am capable of getting the right books with the access codes.

Am I missing something here? What do you guys think?

Try to speak with a current/former student. For my program, I wanted to purchase online, but the school would not even release the titles or ISBN of the books used so I had no clue what I needed. I never opened the cds & we didn't use the online resources for homework; it was simply an additional source for studying.

I can try to speak with some of the students who are ahead of me in the program. I have a feeling I am amongst sheep though. I know I won't have an issue getting the ISBNs as they are readily available on the book store's website right now.

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Unless it is a package that must be bought ahead of time, I've always looked elsewhere for books. My program had an ebook package that was worth it since it included all required textbooks and all online resources for my nursing coursework and I couldn't beat the pricing when looking elsewhere. Sometimes the packages are a better deal. However, I have had syllabi where the professor wasn't what they seemed to be on paper and if I had opened the shrink wrap I would've been stuck with a book that no one in the class touched the entire course because of the awesome powerpoints. If you are worried about not having books at the start of term buy it, but don't open it. Regardless of what you do keep the receipt and don't open the packages until you hear it from the professor themselves what is required. Don't be afraid to shop around, look at amazon, book rentals (non nursing courses), and used textbooks on and offline.

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I am mainly concerned with the fact that if I buy the exact same books, by ISBN brand new, from elsewhere, I save about 300 dollars. The bookstore here at my school is a rip. My A/P texts were in a package and cost almost 600 dollars, then they wouldn't buy them back for anything.

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Specializes in Cardiac Stepdown, PCU.

It honestly depends on the book/program when it comes to access codes. Some books do have access codes, just read the description, as the site selling the book (like if Amazon ask the seller) if it comes with the book. Most descriptions will say if it comes with access to ______ site or whatnot. Sometimes, if you are VERY lucky, you can find a cheaper used copy of the book with the access code. Seriously, I paid $10 for a $115 book in rather excellent condition and was pleasantly surprised to see it still had the access code, after finding out we actually were required to have it and use it despite several people telling me I would never touch it.

However, anything that is Pearson related (MyNursingLab) is separate. Codes aren't included with their books. However, Pearson does have a student site where you can buy the access separate. It might not end up being cheaper however. Depending on how cheap you can get your books. Sometimes you can actually find your bundle on their student site too, if your program uses Pearson. Mine uses the Pearson Concepts system. Which means I have to have those specific books (the hopefully better 2nd edition ones) and the MyNursingLab. At our bookstore we have to spend 901.60 on the bundle. It's all 3 books + the access code to the MyNursingLab. However, I found the same bundle on the Pearson site, for like 768.00. Clearly I will be ordering it from their site instead.

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you can ask some books from your school's senior students .I sure that they can help you.

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Schools depend on the income from the bookstore. I taught, in the past, in an ADN program at a community college in which the nursing course syllabi (which were not really "syllabi," but were more course outlines, 25 or 30 pages) were sold in the bookstore. We faculty had to prepare our course outlines and take them to a local printer, which made the copies (we're talking just photocopies here, no one was setting type or anything ...), shrinkwrapped them, and delivered them to the school bookstore, which sold them to the students for some outrageous price ($25 or something). I missed the deadline for getting my syllabus to the printer once (they required an ridiculous amount of lead time, 3 weeks or something), so I took my syllabus to a copy shop in the nearest city (which I went to all the time anyway); they copied and collated it while I waited, and I brought it to class and asked the students to reimburse me for the cost of the copying, which came to something like a couple dollars per student. The students were thrilled, needless to say. The next time around, I skipped the local printing company entirely, got the syllabus copied at the city copy shop, and the students happily reimbursed me the small amount. Word got out, and I got spoken to by my program director that this wasn't allowed, that the school needed and planned on the profits it made in the bookstore from selling the outrageously overpriced syllabi (and I'm sure the local print shop was making a huge profit as well, considering that the city copy shop would do the same job for 1/10 of the price ...)

My nursing program 20 odd years ago had these "homegrown" course outlines that I always hated to buy. It seemed that every time I went to get one, I would be told to come back another day because they had sold out all the stock and needed time to copy out just one more. But the cost of these sure beat the bundle money generators that are required in this day and age.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Our school sells the whole two years as a single bundle, the books are all custom prints, and at a comparable discount to buying them elsewhere and they include all our digital lab access and testing materials specific to our school that are not available elsewhere. For us it would be disastrous to go elsewhere.

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I would talk to people In the program a semester or two ahead of you and see if you will actually use the code. I bought the bundle my school required first semester and haven't done it since. We never use the access codes.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

I am SO OLD!!! I thought a book was a collection of pages with information on them in a sequential format concerning a specific area of knowledge or related facts. Now there is all this talk of "access codes". The only "codes" I was aware of were found by Tom Hanks in "The da Vinci Code" .

I am so glad I finished school before the electronic revolution. To access my Nursing text books you just had to have a few cups of coffee and an upcomming exam- and voila', access granted.

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I think they are swindling you. I have posted before on how I boycotted the university bookstore & refused to buy from them throughout pre reqs & nursing school. What started this?

Originally, when I attended a community college for pre reqs, they created "special copies" of the textbook. So for my nutrition course, the college took the 12 chapters we covered, bound it & created a new special edition textbook. The bookstore then charged $80 & you couldn't find it elsewhere because they gave it its own ISBN. When I tried to get my other books bought back, they gave back so little that it was not worth it to purchase from there. So I started writing down the title of the book & searching for it. I bought the same textbooks (with more chapters!) for 50% or more of the original cost.

I say search around & buy the textbooks elsewhere. I think your school just wants more money & is scaring students into buying from them. And the access codes? My program wanted us to have them but we never used them.

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Let's say you're paying $50k for your nursing education. $300 is only 0.6% of that total. Rocking the nursing school boat over 0.6% so early in your academic career may single you out in a negative way. Also, when you consider the time spent surfing the web for the best deal, shipping costs, shipping time, and the chance you may not get the proper access code, is 0.6% really worth it?

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I understand what you are saying, but would it really "rock the boat"? I don't think they would know where I obtained my books if I bought the same brand new copies that are specified to come with the access codes. I just saw a Facebook post of a student two semesters ahead of me about how she bought her third semester books on Amazon for like 2/3 of the price. (I hadn't seen that prior to this evening.)

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