Student Careplans...Mosby, Davis, Lippincott?

fromtheseaRN, BSN, RN · Nov 29, 2010

i like the careplan book by Ackley (author's last name).

i use a mac, and have epocrates on my iphone. also have "myconvert' on my iphone- i've used that a ton for dosage conversions, surprisingly.

if you bring your laptop to school, you will rarely bring many books. when you buy your books, they will show you in class how to load the e-version onto your computer, so they are all on your computer desktop ready to go. each day i bring my laptop, notes, and if the teacher specifically requests we bring a book i'll grab that too- it all fits in my backpack. a lot of people had carts on wheels in the first block, but never needed everything in them, and retired them before block 2. i wouldn't waste your money.

AZCodeBlue · Dec 1, 2010

Thank you Fromthesea....I will rethink the crate and pay close attention to the ebooks option. In the past i have

used epocrates and will renew my subscription. Thank you again for the helpful information. Good luck with the

program.

AZCodeBlue

AM09011983 · Dec 3, 2010

I use Ackley and also Carpenito. Wait to buy anything extra until you get into school. Reason being, is that every teacher likes different authors, and you should get the book your clinical instructor likes the best. Also a lot of the students in my class were able to get their care plan books on the internet for like under 5 dollars.

I use a scrap booking bag for my "cart". I've had friends that have the plastic carts and they are constantly breaking, by the time the finish the program they had like 4. I love mine its huge...but I can fit everything in it, and I use it all the time.

I have a lab top that I use at school. I did have an I pod, but returned it because we were not allowed to take it to the facilities with me (that was the main point of me having one)

What school are you going to?

AZCodeBlue · Dec 3, 2010

Hi AM09011983...thank you for your feedback. I am

going to be attending Glendale CC weekend program.

Where are you attending and what block are you in?

I have been kind of surfing online looking to see what

kind of deals there are...I will be waiting thought to

buy.

Curious...have you noticed anyone using the ipad for

nursing applications? I was seriously thinking about

getting myself one for Christmas, but if there is no

use for it in the nursing program I may just pass on

that.

Thanks again for your input and good luck in your

endeavors.

AZCodeBlue

rzyzzy · Dec 7, 2010

I'd do an IPOD touch over an Ipad - the touch will easily fit into your pocket, and gives you a great resource for lab values, medical dictionary, abbreviations, drug book, and practice test questions. Like others have posted, all of your clinical sites don't want you to have a phone or anything that looks like one out while you're on the floor, but most will not mind if you pop into the med room or the break room for a second to check a lab value or look something up

You don't need the 64 gig one - Nursing apps are small - "Lexi Complete" has a medical dictionary, abbreviations, drug book, interactions, etc, and it's only 200 megs. Saunders has packs of 1000 NCLEX questions and those are maybe 20 megs.

Best bet is to check Craigslist for a nice one that's already jailbroken. figure $75-100 depending on how good you are at haggling. It's a tool, not a toy - you're a nurse, and nurses sometimes have patients bleed/barf/pee on them and anything they're carrying in their pockets. If it's too valuable to carry with you all the time, it isn't going to help you much. Cases are about $3 on Amazon, and I got screen protectors for mine for $1/pack of three - get some!

As for care-plan books - in my case it was all instructor-specific, and my instructors didn't want anything cut-n-pasted into a care plan. It wasn't unusual for some instructors to ask for an "in-your-own-words" translation from those that used cut-n-paste care plans. really, really easy if you had googled the diagnoses & spent some time reading, and impossible if you just copied the book.

FWIW, I learned the most from the care plans one instructor required that were in "concept map" format - the final care plan really looks like gibberish if you haven't seen them before, but it's kind of a "thought bubble" process. Again, really easy if you thought about the diagnoses, and impossible to cut-n-paste effectively.

Your best "investment" in block one might be a decent stethoscope - If you're half-deaf like me, and have no idea what the heck you're listening for(like me) - a good scope really helps! I'd recommend anything made by Littmann - and again, it doesn't need to be a $300 scope, The cheapest Littmann is 10X better than the practice ones we had at my school. We had to carry them 100% of the time at clinicals (That's twenty-six 12-hour-days!), so you want something light, and you probably want one of those cloth covers so you don't get a sweaty neck.

Apparel Pro has demo scopes you can try out in person, with a decent MCCD discount, or you could even save a few more bucks by searching Craigslist or buying over the web.

rickelli · Dec 16, 2010

Hi I am in block 4 my opinoin on the nursing care plan books is you need more than one. I have 4 one was in our package of books the school had us buy (ackley) and I didn't care for that one at all so I purchased a few more. The best ones that I feel got me through are

Nursing Care Plans by Gulanick/Myers: ISBN # 978-0-323-03954-3

OR

Nursing Care Plans by Doenges/Moorhouse: ISBN # 978-0-8036-2210-4

These are fantastic and have a variety of nursing diagnosis. I wouldn't of made it without these books or my care plans wouldn't of made it :).

Hope this helps and Good Luck