optional books the professor recommended, are they worth it?

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First question.. we are required to get a drug referenced book: davis's drug guides for nurses or mosby's nursing drug reference? Which is the better?

Then my professor mentioned some optional books that could be beneficial... have any of you used these and were they helpful? or should I not spend the money ?

Student laboratory manual for Mosby's guide to physical examination. (6th ed.

* Medical, Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary.

Any advice would be very helpful, thank you!!:)

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I really like the Davis Drug guide, that is what I use. I think a good medical dictionary is important, I use Taber's, but the one listed is probably fine. I am not familiar with the lab manual you mentioned. It sounds like one I would not use, but that's just me!

I would definitely get some nclex books, like Saunders!

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We are required to get the Davis' Drug Guide. We are also recommended to get any medical dictionary as well. I'm pretty much buying up everything they tell me to, so I can be prepared.

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I use the Davis Drug Guide and I love it.

As far as recommended books, no, I wouldnt buy those. If the professor thought they were important enough for you to have, then they would've made them required.

And I definitely wouldnt waste money on a health/medical dictionary. That stuff can be found by consulting everybodys "best friend", Mr. Google :D

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I am entering my senior year of nursing school (2-yr ASN program)

Here's my advice:

*Buy the books they tell you to, but don't buy the workbooks with them (I haven't used one at all, and I bought everything they told me to = $900 in books)

*I have Davis' Drug Guide (very useful) and Mosby's medical dictionary (looked up a few disorders and such)

*Buy ANY and ALL NCLEX review books you can afford. Try and find some that are organized based on topics so you can focus on certain chapters for tests. I personally LOVE the Prentice Hall Reviews & Rationales Books (they have one for pharm, electrolytes, maternity, med/surg, etc. & they give information in a table or bullet format, very easy to read...much easier than the 3000 page med/surg book!) They sell them at B&N but I chose to get used ones on Amazon for half the cost. They have literally been THE BEST resources I've studied from. They also come with CDS, so it's much easier and faster to practice NCLEX questions.

GOOD LUCK -- welcome to the hardest journey of your life! :) and say goodbye to the life you have now!

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Thank you soooo much for all the recommendations! I have been looking into NCLEX books but haven't bought any yet. I dont know how helpful they will be this semester will basically just theory style classes (BSN program). I read alot among the posts that people have found the davis book to be very helpful so I ordered that. My mother was like if the professor mentioned it then get it! You can't be prepared enough, but I wouldn't want to just waste money on something that I will hardly use/ find helpful when it could go towards something else!

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if i could make a suggestion, it would be this: laboratory and diagnostic tests with nursing implications, by joyce lafever mckee. you will be sooo ahead of the crowd with this one. used to recommend it to my students and i could always tell who read it because they actually knew why tests were done, how to prep the patient for them, and what the results mean. does this sound like something a nurse ought to know? (hint: nclex certainly thinks so...) i still use it myself. (disclaimer: no financial interest in book, author, or publisher to disclose)

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if i could make a suggestion, it would be this: laboratory and diagnostic tests with nursing implications, by joyce lafever mckee. you will be sooo ahead of the crowd with this one. used to recommend it to my students and i could always tell who read it because they actually knew why tests were done, how to prep the patient for them, and what the results mean. does this sound like something a nurse ought to know? (hint: nclex certainly thinks so...) i still use it myself. (disclaimer: no financial interest in book, author, or publisher to disclose)

thank you so much ! i will definitely add that to my list of books to get. do you think the addition of the book matters? should i get the newest edition?

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I am starting nursing school in the Fall also & I bought the four recommended books that they talked to us about in orientation to make sure I am prepared. One is the same book GrnTea recommended. I got the 6th edition from Amazon for $27.92. The ISBN for it is: 978-0-13-514278-3. I also bought the tHandbook of Nursing Diagnosis by Lynda Juall Carpenito-Moyet, Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary (21st edition), and Mosby's 2011 Nursing Drug Reference by Linda Skidmore-Roth.

I'm super excited to start but also very nervous! haha :D

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Get a good nursing diagnosis book. I use Sparks and Taylor's Nursing Diagnosis Reference Manual. It's a huge help when you're doing care plans. I especially like this one because it has an appendix that lists possible nursing diagnosis for various conditions, i.e., small bowel obstruction, appendicitis, etc.

I also picked up Saunder's NCLEX-RN Comprehensive Review book, but have yet to really crack it open. Soon!

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Specializes in Oncology.

I'm a BSN student going into my last semester of school (3 years coming to a close finally!!). Although many people recommend getting and using multiple NCLEX books, I discourage against it because the questions can be written differently and the rationales may disagree. You'll be dealing with multiple ways of forming an NCLEX question already through different instructors in your school. Saunders NCLEX Review and Kaplan's testing strategies (thinner dark blue book) is all you really need in my opinion - stick with one series. It's about knowing HOW to answer the questions and having the information to back it up rather than the amount of questions you cram through your brain.

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I use Mosby's Drug Book and Tabor's Medical. We can't just use Google because our instructors want to SEE us using the Tabor's at clinical. I bought Fundamentals Success for the first semester and it is also recommended that we use the "Review and Rationales" series. I have several NCLEX study guides and various other supplemental books.

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