Should you buy new or used books for your program?

[TurtleLittle]

Hi everyone,

I will enter my general nursing program @ CSU Chico, California this Fall! super excited.

n I would like to ask for some advice about buying books throughout the programs. Since I got into the program, obviously I had had some experiences with buy new or used books for college before. I often got good deals and passed several class with used books only or even without book sometimes. Now for entering the program, I suppose it should be different right? I'm thinking I should buy all new books because I would use them a lot and might save them even after school for career reference. (n boy, I'm talking about a huge expense over here!)

So could anyone share their experiences? Do u buy all new or used books? Or if you buy new books only for major texts (usually those cost the most too!). Maybe some don't even buy the minor texts ? Am I over-thinking it and later on just dump all of my texts after school?!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

I buy used, to save money.

And some of the books (such as OB, mental health, nursing leadership/management) you'll probably end up selling back anyway. You can find much of the same information in either a good med-surg textbook or a good NCLEX review book.

99% of books I have bought used from Amazon are pretty much like brand new.

[Kaybee24]

Used and older editions FTW. Buying older editions saves a ridiculous amount of money, Dosages Calculations by Pickar? The bookstore wanted 80 bucks, I bought the 7th edition for 5 dollars including the shipping. Same with my pharm book, it was like 20 bucks including shipping compared to the new edition which was like 80-90 minus shipping. I always debate about whether I buy the older edition, if it's an online class and the professor probably won't be referencing a lot of page numbers I buy the older edition. I bought Professional Nursing: Concepts and Challenges by Chitty new and then I was at Half Price Books and they had an older version for 5 dollars!

Also, ebooks are usually half the price of the real thing and are always offered in the newest edition. I did this for my legal and ethics class (Legal and Ethical Issues by Pozgar), you purchase access to the book and create a logon. It was easily navigable and it was available for download or through online access. Ebooks are great because you can search the book to find any phrase and its so much better than using the index. This ebook also allowed you to highlight and make notes.

HTH

[kmangukia]

People who used a new textbook. Textbook with the access code is it worth paying?

[NU_Cohorter]

1 hour ago, Krishna Patel said:

People who used a new textbook. Textbook with the access code is it worth paying?

I've seen versions with and without the additional material and it seems like it's just a rationale to raise prices on textbooks. You need to take everything with a grain of salt as what I find meaningless might seem useful to you. I always buy used/2nd hand copies of books now.

[kmangukia]

NU_Cohorter thank you for sharing your suggestion.