New grads and student nurses...textbook question!

SanDiegoCaliRN · Aug 18, 2011

Personally, I would get rid of every one of 'em. I kept my A&P book for reference (HUGE, heavy book) and never looked at it once throughout nursing school. The reason your Med-Surg book will be even bigger and heavier (and more expensive) is because it will include...yep, you guessed, it...A&P.

Now, post-graduation is a different story. I got rid of all of my textbooks but kept my skills manual, Tabers dictionary, drug book and a good nursing care plan book for future reference.

Good luck in nursing school. This is a challenging but also rewarding and exciting time in your life :)

33762FL · Aug 18, 2011

Not a single one. I sold all my textbooks and only kept my Made Incredibly Easy books that pertain to my new specialty. Honestly, I found that even in school made Incredibly Easy is a much better use of study time than the textbooks, which were often too wordy and repetitive.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2011

Sell them while you can. I kept several thinking that I would use them to study for NCLEX or look stuff up when I was working. But now I just go to the internet for everything. My books are getting outdated, so I won't be able to get much money for them now.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Aug 18, 2011

Most of them will be irrelevant rather quickly as standards evolve and new editions come out. I am keeping my tabor's, drug book, care plan book and my funds book. (Funds book mostly because it looks like it went through a war since I used it extensively and it was a soft cover but it has many useful resources and good information,..) Many of my books from this year are already new editions for next year. If I can sell them I will.

A&P I have no intention on keeping. The material is widely available from a variety of sources, the material is also included in the med surg book (though not as in depth), and frankly I don't think I will ever look at it again.

bewitched · Aug 18, 2011

I kept my Chemistry, A&P, Human Nutrition, Microbio, and Human Growth and Development books from my pre-reqs. I am about to go into my 2nd semester of nursing school and I haven't looked at any of them yet. The textbooks and our instructors were pretty good about reviewing the normal physiology/A&P prior to teaching us about certain conditions, etc. so I didn't need to look back on the old textbooks.

northmississippi · Aug 18, 2011

you can sell them now for 70, and if you need them back one day, buy them again off ebay for a dollar.

NothingsImpossible4U · Aug 18, 2011

this is all very good to know-thank you everyone who replied!! :)

tyvin, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2011

If you would have asked me this question pre-internet I would have said keep them. With the internet and how fast things change I would be getting my info from the internet anyway so sell. You can always use the extra money and it helps out the next one going to class. Sell unless the book has acquired some sentimental value that is.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Aug 18, 2011

get rid of them while you can. You will probably never use them and they get outdated quickly.

rnwannabe77 · Aug 18, 2011

I am so glad you asked this question!!!!! Additionally, I'm glad that everyone seems to be in agreement that keeping old, outdated texts is useless. I have quite a few books from my prereqs that I'd decided to hold onto for reference, but after reading the comments here I'm definitely gonna sell them! No use holding on to them if I'm never gonna refer back to them! Besides, I have about 5 of the Nursing Made Incredibly Easy books so I can use those for reference instead.

Jazdani4 · Aug 18, 2011

I graduate in december and one book i will definately keep is called manual of critical care nursing it is awesome it has nursing interventions and really great explanations and lab values. the only prereq book i kept was an atlas from A and P