Question about nursing books

[StayHumble11]

Starting nursing school next month and I have many of the books from my sister who already went through the program. Many of these books are 1 edition older than the new ones that are required for the program. I was wondering if this makes much of a difference in the reading material at all? It would be great if I could save some money by using her books.

[krisiepoo]

The easy answer is sometimes it will and sometimes it won't change in the reading material. You'll want to know if your instructors do any of the questions at the end of the chapters, those would be the big changes. Drug books change yearly so get an updated one... saying that, I used a med-surg book that was an edition behind and did just fine... however some books I got new/updated one...

[DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN]

My school requires access to the online books that came with the purchase of the new book. We weren't required to carry all 16 of our textbooks to class everyday, but once in awhile there would be a random assignment where we would need access to the e-book.

[RNnewbie2014]

I had a roommate who used older editions. She has done just fine, but most of the time, page numbers are not the same in the book. I would just ask the instructor. I know I used an older edition of potter and perry my first semester, and it worked okay. The instructors did not help us much at all with converting the page numbers though, so it was sort of challenging.

[StayHumble11]

Thanks so much for the replies...I talked with my dad and he agrees it's best to have the most updated books

[bmillz]

Dad knows best :) It's such a pain because books are expensive but from year to year standards, guidelines and state protocols change, so it is ideal to have the latest editions. Best of luck!!!

[green34]

What our instructors say is that it is fine if you use an older book but all information comes from the newer edition. Meaning if they change a single thing from the old edition and you base an answer off an old edition, then the answer will be wrong and you will not get any credit for it. Almost everything was the same. I rent most of my books due to the cost. I did buy OB, peds, adult health I & II (same book), and my path book. All other ones I rented.

Use bigwords.com for comparing the prices. Sometimes it's better to just buy the book instead of renting.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Also, some of the information on nursing diagnosis will be outdated because the NANDA-I (which you WILL get even if they forget to put it on your bookstore list) is updated every two years. The current edition, 2012-2014, is available at Amazon for $29, $24 for your Kindle, free two-day shipping. You will see me talk about this all the time in care planning threads, and believe me, you do not want to get it wrong. :)