Best medical & surgical nursing books according to redditors

Urine is sterile only within the bladder of certain healthy individuals. Many individuals, especially those who are sexually active, have colonization of bacteria in their bladders. It is usually asymptomatic and poses no significant health risk to the person, unless the urinary tract also becomes colonized.

Source: Medical-Surgical Nursing by Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, Bucher and Camera

That being said, I disagree with you that OP was judging her best friend for her choices. Rather, I think that OP was disappointed because she felt she had been supportive (despite possible personal aversions?) of her friend, while her friend was less supportive of her.

•CV Pharmacology helped me understand many concepts, though that site is geared only toward heart (CV Cardiovascular) medications.

















•This site about adrenergic receptors was useful as well.



















•RealNurseEd helped a lot on a few concepts like ABG’s.



















•I’m not sure what textbook the class uses, but Lehne’s Pharmacology for Nursing is worded very clearly and in understandable terms, I’d recommend it (check if your school’s library has it instead of buying it).



















•MERCK MANUAL!!!!! This is the capstone, hallmark, gold standard, ultimate resource, bible of medical (mainly patho) information. Googling things sends one to a land of indirect results, sensory overload, and often conflicting information, it can be really hard to get a definitive answer from there. Merck Manual is a straightforward, to-the-point resource for anything medical related. Again, your library probably has this, any edition is marvelous.





















•Gray’s Anatomy is actually a real and extremely useful book, go figure. It very clearly breaks down and labels human anatomy. Patho is virtually an amped-up review of A&P, so this and Merck Manual might be useful. Hundreds of versions are available, many online formats free. Your library most likely has this as well.






















•Various lecture videos on YouTube can help. And when searching for a certain thing, follow the search with “.edu”— that will usually bring up sites in html format. I’ve found those sites to be most straightforward and easy to use.

I used Saunders and dominated the Exit HESI, which is allegedly supposed to be more difficult than the NCLEX. I loved it, it had tons of questions, and really helped me go through each system and point in the lifespan to come to logical conclusions during my test.

http://www.amazon.com/Saunders-Comprehensive-NCLEX-RN%C2%AE-Examination-Nclex-Rn/dp/1437708250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335203614&sr=1-1

Other people will recommend Mosby's.

http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Nursing-NCLEX-RN%C2%AE-Examination-Nclex-Rn/dp/0323078958/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335203661&sr=1-1

Both are supposed to be great, just make sure you get one with a CD included, otherwise you will miss out on tons of questions that are not included in the book. Good luck to your wife!

I thought this was really helpful

http://www.amazon.com/Prioritization-Delegation-Assignment-Exercises-Examination/dp/0323065708/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422588167&sr=1-2&keywords=prioritization+delegation+and+assignment

this one is pretty good and basic





of course you can never go wrong with Brunner & Suddarth , Ignatavicius and others. if you're not looking for brand new editions you can save a ton of money on older editions or if you search hard enough you can torrent some of them for your ebook reader

I guess it really depends on your interest in nursing. But here are some general resources:

Medical-Surgical Nursing Made Incredibly Easy - a pretty good book for general nursing reference.

Nursing2016 - an excellent journal, again for nursing in general.

Since I'm an ER nurse the other resources I have are really geared towards that speciality, so I'm not really sure about website.

I only know of two organizations, MSNCB and ACCN. I did ACCN and got my RN-BC last month. I believe if you go to their website it shows a comparison between them and MSNCB. I did ACCN because it is by far the most common one at my facility. I studied with this book. I work Med/Surg so most stuff was fine, I did need to bone up on endocrine disorders. I only studied a couple weeks and passed.

I think it was this one by Lippincott

Personally, I just read my instructor's power point to get an overview, and then read the textbook. Sometimes I'd take notes on the powerpoints, because then I didn't have to write as much since there's already a skeleton outline.

THEN practice question. I'd do tons, like 200-500 per chapter. I bought a lot of extra resources. Chiefly I'd go to Lippincott's Q&A (I guess there's a newer one out now). This had the most consistent quality of questions. Then I'd use whatever Success Series book paired with the class [1]. These two together would cover a large breadth of disorders, individually each one would skip some diseases. I'd save Saunders for last if I wanted more questions, because too many of them were ridiculously easy.

You have to buy it through evolve.elsevier.com, but I think it's only for elsevier books, which we use in my program

But maybe you could do it without having used the books, but you won't be able to look anything up if you don't agree with it https://www.amazon.com/Elsevier-Adaptive-Quizzing-Medical-Surgical-36-Month/dp/0323244971

Freberg's Discovering Behavioral Neuroscience will give you a solid framework for basic biological psychology, including ligand-receptor theory. The other two books hit the ground running in that respect.

For basic pharmacology, I really liked Lehne's Pharmacology for Nursing Care. Don't let the nursing aspect deter you. For one thing, the nursing process is an invaluable perspective. For another, it's a fantastic pharma reference.

http://www.amazon.com/Med-Surg-Success-Applying-Critical-Thinking/dp/0803625049/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381844678&sr=8-1&keywords=med+surg+success

Saved my life in med surg...

This is it

I guess what I was asking is what semester are you on? Is this a peds final? Med-surg? Exit exam from nursing school?

I recommend Med-Surg Success. It isn't very expensive and found it really helpful during my first Med-Surg course.

I did a content based review via 'hurst review' first. once i was comfortable reviewing all the content, i went on to doing questions and looking at test taking strategies. i feel like kaplan focuses more on test taking strategy than on content review. consider picking up this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Prioritization-Delegation-Assignment-Exercises-Examination/dp/0323065708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346661504&sr=8-1&keywords=prioritization+delegation+and+assignment

I did every single question in this book and went over all the rationales. i also did all the practice tests under the hurst review. in total, i think i did close to 1500 questions in a span of 3-4 weeks. on test day, i was there for 6 hours and did all 256 questions. i passed.

Buy an NCLEX study guide. There are nclex test taking tips in there. You can use the practice questions in there to study for your exams. Some times, the questions in those practice tests are very similar if not verbatim the questions on your tests. I recommend the Saunders and Hesi practice books. Also, depending on the class their are Success books like this one that are very helpful for studying: http://amzn.com/0803625049

Looking for
Davis Advantage for Medical-Surgical Nursing: Making Connections to Practice 1st Edition

ISBN-13: 978-0803644175 ISBN-10: 0803644175

https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Advantage-Medical-Surgical-Nursing-Connections/dp/0803644175

I took it today and finished in 75, getting the "good" pop-up.

Here's what I did:
My school paid for me to take Kaplan. The in-class portion was useless to me, but the most helpful thing were the practice questions. They are set up exactly like the NCLEX (I wish I could show a screen shot, they were identical, right down to the set-up, colors, etc.). This helped me feel more comfortable when I sat down to take it because I felt like I had already seen it before. Kaplan was next to useless for me as far as content review. They did give us an e-book, but I didn't use it. I did about 1000 questions and studied the rationales for every question I got wrong or was unsure of. I kept it all in a notebook and reviewed it daily. I did this for about 3 weeks (starting after the course ended), doing anywhere from 100-200 questions a day.

I used Saunders to review content. It comes with a CD that you can identify strengths/weakness with through a diagnostic exam. Honestly, I didn't go through it completely. I went through the pediatric sections because that was my weakness according to the diagnostic exam, but other than that, I just kind of skipped around, focusing on areas I needed clarification in.

Here's what I wish I had done:
-Actually set up a study plan to review instead of jumping around. I wish I had time to go through the book completely, but it just wasn't feasible. It would have made me feel better going into the exam.
-Bought Lacharity's book and included it in my studying. I did pretty well on delegation, priority, assignment questions, but I still wish I had used this book for some extra practice.

General stuff:
-Know lab values. Some people have no questions on them, but I for one did and was happy I memorized them.
-In addition to multiple choice, do as many alternate-format questions as you can. I hate SATA, but was happy I dedicated a few days to just doing those kind of questions. At least half my exam was SATA. I also got ordered response, graphics, exhibit/chart, so make sure you are familiar with these. Kaplan has some sample tests that are completely SATA/ordered response/computation, and you can pick to do only alternate response items from Saunders' CD.

The day before the exam, try to relax and not get yourself worked up. Do some light reviewing if you must, review lab values one more time but absolutely no hard-core studying because it wont help. Day of, wake up early, have a light breakfast (I was too nervous to really eat), and make sure you get there early so you're not rushed. Don't forget your ATT!

Keep calm. You've completed nursing school and have the knowledge to do this. It is a minimum competency exam; you're not expected to get everything correct.

Good luck!!!

I had an interview for a new graduate position (and got it!). The first portion of the interview consisted of questions similar to what you posted: Some questions addressed my previous clinical rotations; most focused on my previous work experience. I went to a ton of nursing job panels where HR managers would come and talk about what they wanted, etc., so I had a good idea of what questions they were going to ask and WHY they asked them ("previous behavior predicts future behavior").

I had "scenarios" as well. One was about hypoglemic management ("You walk into the room and your patient is confused and diaphoretic"). I went through the steps/algorithm (VS, BS -> IV glucose; skipped 'orange juice' because of risk for aspiration). Another was about priority/delegation that was ripped straight out of La Charity (http://www.amazon.com/Prioritization-Delegation-Assignment-Exercises-Examination/dp/0323065708). Thank God I had done the book in the days prior [for my own NCLEX studying].

A question I was not ready for was about my educational background (my bachelors; I'm an ADN). They asked extensively about it. And on a related note, the pay rate between the BSNs and ADNs at my hospital is negligible. Literally, cents ($0.49 to be exact). In fact, people with previous hospital experience (CNA, transporter, tech, LVN, etc.) had a greater pay rate than me ($2-3).

In terms of my nursing education, they did not ask anything in the interview, but for sure they looked at my transcript. I would learn that the only reason they cared about my GPA was because (1) I did not have my license [yet] and (2) I had not taken my boards. Hiring me was a considerable gamble and they used my GPA as a predictor of my chances of passing boards.

http://www.amazon.com/Straight-As-Medical-Surgical-Nursing-Springhouse/dp/1582556946
Though me and my study partner both prefer this series..which you can buy on the apple book store

http://www.amazon.com/Medical-Surgical-Nursing-Demystified/dp/0071494502/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371781142&sr=1-1&keywords=med+surg+demystified

What helped me many moons ago was this book. Made a world of difference https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Surgical-Nursing-Made-Incredibly-Easy/dp/1496324846