Old edition textbooke?

BrooklynRN11201 · May 13, 2013

usually the info is mostly the same, but the page numbers and charts and whatnot will be a little off.

I would honestly just RENT - the only books you really need to buy are the Reviews & Rationales and some NCLEX books.

I like Chegg.com a lot.

kmac3414 · May 13, 2013

Renting is still not $4 lol!

And renting only saves me $5-10 a book.. =/

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 13, 2013

How olde is olde? The NANDA-I gets updated every two years, so you'll get some of those wrong if you're working from an old book. There have been updates in just about every field in terms of medications, new labs, and new diagnostics. Did your sweet old grandmother ever say, "Penny wise, pound foolish" or "You get what you pay for"? Also remember that the books you buy this year will be the ones you'll be studying for your NCLEX with in two years and for your first year or two of work after that. How old do you want them to be then?

BrooklynRN11201 · May 13, 2013

ha! I guess that's true... I would say go for the older edition, but make sure that it's just ONE edition earlier. Say, if your Prof wants you to use Edition 8, 7 should be okay. you can always ask the Prof too... they're very familiar with this questions and 9 times out of 10, an earlier edition is fine. if it's a book by Elsevier/Evolve, see if you can share an online login with another student for the eTables and animations - those have really helped me.

Shelby, BSN, RN · May 13, 2013

Most older versions are reasonably similar, and many teachers do not use the newest textbook available. By default, my university would tell students that the textbook that is required for a class is the newest book available. I would get into class and the teacher would say "If you have an older textbook then that is ok." (I would think "if I had known that then I could have saved $50!") The only time this might not be a good idea is if you used the same textbook for more than a year or for more than one class.

I would email your teacher if possible. Many will quickly and honestly respond, especially if you tell them that you have to watch your finances.

If you do have to buy a new edition, I highly recommend the international editions. I almost always find them to be less expensive than renting. Plus you have the book-- which you will sometimes have to reference during future classes and for papers that you will have to write in future classes. (I know I had to quote some "old" texts and list them in my references for papers and nursing care plans.) Also, there's nothing wrong with buying a used book!

kmac3414 · May 13, 2013

Most of the books they want are brand new.. So there aren't used ones available for some.

I have one edition back books.. I would never go further than that.

Are the international ones the same? I have heard they are different.

4boysmama · May 13, 2013

so far, the only book I have bought a brand new, latest edition for is my Clinical Drug Therapy (for pharm) - that seems to be an ever-changing and updating field, so I felt like I had to have the latest info. For the rest, I've bought the next oldest edition (so, for example, if the most recent update is 12th Edition, I'll get the 11th) and I've got a 4.0 halfway through my program now, so it's working for me :) Honestly, it's a little bit of a hassle in terms of finding specific charts that she references and whatnot, but overall I've found that there's virtually no difference between the editions.

Shelby, BSN, RN · May 14, 2013

Most of the books they want are brand new.. So there aren't used ones available for some.
I have one edition back books.. I would never go further than that.
Are the international ones the same? I have heard they are different.

If you can find the previous edition, I would buy that. (I still say email your instructors if you are concerned, but usually the editions vary very little.)

I have used many international versions and the content is exactly the same. They are soft cover, and the picture on the cover is different from the picture on the American books. But everything else is identical, including page numbers and exercise problems (there is usually a disclaimer stating the exercises might be slightly different, but I have never found that to be true). I remember I bought the international version of a med calculations workbook which was required for a nursing class. I had my brand new workbook weeks before half the class-- while they had to wait 2 weeks after the med calc lecture had started to get their books from the bookstore (and pay almost 3 times more than me!!).