The last time I had bought textbooks was when I had taken the emergency nursing preceptorship course in 2015, and that was one textbook at the cost of $60. With WGU, the cost of e-books was factored into the tuition, which was never a concern.
I don't begin classes until July, but the NP program had published the textbook list for the three courses I am taking that term. I decided to take a look-see and put them on an Amazon wish-list, so I can start picking them off over the next three months. I'm glad I did because it was a bit of a sticker shock.
$740. In all fairness, this is the total price if each book was a new print copy. Now, I could--should--look at how I could reduce that whole bill.
Obviously, the first way to do that is to rent textbooks as opposed to purchasing them outright. I'd have to decide which ones would be worth the rental as opposed to the purchase...the physical assessment texts may be good candidates for this. I already have a set of them from the RN-BSN program. To be honest, it's not as though physical assessment techniques radically change as human body parts aren't radically changing. The only area that I see that might involve a deep dive into new material is how to assess transgender patients. But otherwise, an ear is an ear. So I'd probably get a hard-copy pocket guide to keep on hand and rent the rest of the books for this class. Pathology textbooks may be good candidates for this as well. I believe I still have a patho textbook or two from the RN-BSN program. Let me look and see. If I don't have them, then I'll purchase one.
Also, suppose it turns out that I like the book enough to keep it. In that case, I could always purchase it, usually at a reduced price, as rentals are almost always used textbooks, to begin with.
Kindle editions. I will admit that I am not always a Kindle edition textbook fan. As much as I like the Kindle, there's something about having my textbooks on Kindle that turns me off. First of all, not all of them are Kindle-reader ready; instead, you're stuck having to read them on a laptop/desktop computer. Second, the Kindle version format is often warped AF, which can be so distracting that it takes away from the reading. But for some of the textbooks, going Kindle may be a good idea. A drug guide textbook would be a good choice for the Kindle route, as that would be something handy to have on my iPhone.
Used textbooks. I'm not always a fan of these because sometimes the supplemental material that comes with the book (the CDs or the website codes) is more valuable than the book itself. Plus, it can be disconcerting to read through someone else's highlights, notes, and marks. But for a textbook that I'm not planning to keep, such as assessment ones, this is an option.
Then there are some things that I just won't budge on. I will purchase any textbook that I know that I will get solid mileage out of for at least two or three years after completing the program. Since I am going the psych NP route, this would definitely be the pharmacology textbooks.
Last, I've got time to shop around. Amazon isn't the only game in town, which is nice. I've got almost three months to look around and compare prices.
So maybe I can get creative and cut $740 down to about $400-$500.
