astanton10

I am an RN enrolled in a BS-PhD program, about to start my second semester. I am looking to save money on textbooks and rented all 3 required texts from last semester, of which I purchased one (SPSS Statistics) and sent the others back. I am now looking at options for renting versus buying textbooks for my second semester but am looking for advice on whether I should rent or just buy them upfront. I am not sure if I will need them in the future for studying for comprehensive exams or actually doing research. I suspect that most of the information in them can be found online, which is often more up-to-date anyway. Could you tell me about your experience with using grad-level textbooks versus online resources in your other classes, studying for comprehensive exams, or in actual research?

I am in a monitoring program in WI and got a new monitor/case manager last fall. I started in May 2009 and am grateful to have had a steady job ever since. However, apparently my new monitor informed me that I wasn't submitting 2 forms that they require for the past four years AND that the ones I was submitting were being submitted too early. She also informed me of discrepanies in call-ins, missed screens, and unscheduled tests that were showing on her reports. She seemed to be working with me to help me get into compliance since April. Then I came home from being out of town to a notice that she lifted the stay on my license suspension AND an article on page 2 in the local paper about what I originally lost my license for (including a paragraph about something that I didn't even do that was on the cover letter of my order back in 2009 that they told me was a typo and not to worry about it) and thatt I am suspended again for being out of compliance. Most of the community and few of my coworkers knew about my past prior to the article. I am working my 4th step and was writing about guilt/shame when the article was published. Long-story short I now have a lawyer and am standing up for myself and my recovery because I am doing all the right things. Apparently the Board is becoming more punitive and the monitor told me that I am starting my 5 year order over again and nothing I did in the past counts for anything. My recommendations to others is to get clean, go to meetings, start working the steps, keep track of things on your own, keep all your paperwork and double-check dates on all COC forms, check the lab reprts, and communicate with your monitor/case manager in written form only. I am grateful to have moved thru the guilt and shame and am feeling the freedom that comes along with "everyone knowing." Please hold on to hope, trust that everything (especially the "bad" stuff) happens for a reason, and stay clean no matter what!