Nursing Texts Highest Rate of Theft in Barnes and Noble

[DawnSue]

I went into my local South Florida Barnes and Noble. I am starting a program in May. Was looking for some books to get early so I could start studying.

They had to put all of their Nursing text books and study aids behind the counter. The manager told me that those books get stolen five times more frequently than any other category of book. (The second was the Bible!)

They were losing so much money on nursing books. Medical and other types of professional books (pharm, fire, police, GRE, etc.) had a very low rate of theft.

What the heck? What am I to think? Could it be related to my demographic area?

I have seen some really terrible nursing care down here, when I have had family members treated so badly by some nurses -- one told my grandmother, who needed a bedpan, to just crap herself in bed and he would clean it up "later."

I am wondering about my future classmates and co-workers. I also wonder if this has anything to do with the recent thread about new grads not having any clinical skills.

Is new nursing going downhill? What the heck?? Very strange.

[ohgoodnessgracious]

I understand that textbooks are crazy expensive and adding the income of a typical nursing student isn't much help -- but, jeez - what a shame! I remember me and my study buddies huddling around Barnes and Noble and not being able to afford any of the books but we stayed there anyway and studied from them - made our own notes if we had to, with each person covering certain chapters. And when I got really really desperate and needed more time, I admit - I did buy the books but returned them later, CDs intact and everything. I tried to buy them from other students with used books too. I did this pretty rarely tho (buying and returning the book) because our university library had our books on reserve which we could borrow for about 2 hours or so. We could request our professors to get a book put on reserve at the library and they were often pretty agreeable. And if that wasn't enough, one professor let me borrow her copy because the textbook on reserve was constantly out. I've also borrowed older versions of the textbook at the library. Or if I was, for example, in my OB rotation, I would throughout the semester take out all the most current OB textbooks and study from those. It was a giant pain in the butt but if you've got the resources, might as well do it! Without doing anything illegal, especially.

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

What part of South Florida are PPs from?

I live in Miami and my B & N has all the nursing texts in situ on the shelves.

Perhaps it is only certain parts of South Florida that these types of thievery occur?