Nursing textbooks are chosen by the module, and module lists run behind the publishers. A first-year module in Scotland names the 2011 edition of a manual whose tenth edition came out in 2021; an Australian unit names a drug guide one edition behind the current one; a US list sets a medical-surgical textbook replaced in October 2025.
This guide, published by EdCitation, names the kinds of book a nursing degree reads, taken from the reading lists and module guides of four universities in three countries and from the NMC's own list, all read on 23 September 2026. It then shows how to choose an edition, how to cite a nursing textbook in APA 7, and where to find nursing books in one place: EdCitation's Library, a catalogue of textbooks and scholarly books searched by discipline, and Cite a source, which builds the reference from the book's ISBN.
Which textbooks do nursing students need?
Nursing students need six kinds of book, and lists in the UK, Australia and the United States name the same six: fundamentals of nursing, medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, evidence-based practice, and a drug formulary or drug guide. UK lists add a manual of clinical procedures.
The table draws on the 2026/27 module descriptors of the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), the 2026 handbook of Australian Catholic University (ACU), and the required books page of Nova Southeastern University's health library (NSU).
| Kind of book | What it is for | Named on a 2026 list |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of nursing | Care, assessment and the nurse's role | Essentials of Nursing Practice, 3rd edn (UWS); Potter & Perry's Fundamentals of Nursing, 6th ANZ ed. (ACU); Fundamentals of Nursing by Taylor, Lynn and Bartlett (NSU) |
| Clinical procedures manual | Each procedure, step by step | The Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures (UWS, and the NMC's own Test of Competence list) |
| Medical-surgical nursing | Adults with medical and surgical conditions | Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing (NSU); Lewis's Medical-Surgical Nursing, 6th ANZ ed. (ACU); Alexander's Nursing Practice, 6th edn (UWS) |
| Pharmacology | How drugs act and are given | Essentials of Pharmacology for Nurses, 4th edn (UWS); Fundamentals of Pharmacology, 9th ed. (ACU); Pharmacology and the Nursing Process (NSU) |
| Anatomy and physiology | The body in health | Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology for Nursing Practice, 3rd edn, and Ross and Wilson (UWS); Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, 3rd Asia-Pacific ed. (ACU) |
| Evidence-based practice | Appraising research | Essentials of Nursing Research by Polit and Beck; Evidence-Based Practice for Nurses by Schmidt and Brown (NSU) |
| Drug formulary or guide | Doses and cautions, drug by drug | British National Formulary (UWS); Havard's Nursing Guide to Drugs (ACU); Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses (NSU) |
Where these titles come from
University of the West of Scotland (2026a) lists the resources for Biosciences for Health, a first-year module of its NMC-accredited adult nursing programme, in which students become familiar with the British National Formulary; three more UWS descriptors supply the rest (University of the West of Scotland, 2026b, 2026c, 2026d). Each ACU unit read ends with "representative texts and references", and Nova Southeastern University Health Library (2026) keeps the entry-level BSN's required books, updated on 21 August 2026.
What are the best nursing textbooks for students?
The best nursing textbook for a student is the one their module lists, in the edition it names, because the teaching, the weekly reading and the marking follow that book. A title on several lists is a safe buy; one on none is extra reading.
Regional editions are different books
The kinds match across countries; the titles do not. Australian units name Australian and New Zealand editions and Havard's, the Scottish modules the Royal Marsden manual and the BNF, the US list Brunner & Suddarth and Davis's. For Lewis's Medical-Surgical Nursing, a search of EdCitation's Library returns editions led by Harding and colleagues, by Brown and colleagues, the Australian and New Zealand team, and by Tyerman and colleagues in Canada. Australian Catholic University (2026c) sets the sixth edition by Brown and colleagues, of 2023, and Principles of Anatomy and Physiology in its third Asia-Pacific edition. Each regional edition has its own authors, and a drug guide written for one country's medicines is the wrong one for another's placement.
Free open textbooks alongside the list
OpenStax, part of Rice University, publishes eight nursing textbooks free to read online, among them Fundamentals of Nursing, Medical-Surgical Nursing and Pharmacology for Nurses, under a Creative Commons licence (OpenStax, n.d.-a); the pharmacology book, published on 29 May 2024, runs to 40 chapters (OpenStax, n.d.-b). None of the lists read for this guide names one, so treat them as extra reading unless your module says otherwise. More free sources are in where to find free textbooks legally.
How do I choose the right edition of a nursing textbook?
Use the edition your module list names. When a newer one exists, find out what changed and ask whether it is accepted. For a drug formulary or drug guide, always use the current edition.
Lists run behind the publishers
Each of the four universities read names at least one superseded edition, and two of them name different editions of one book in different modules.
| Book | Edition on a 2026 list | Newest edition | What changed, from the publisher's page |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures | 8th, 2011 (UWS, first year); 10th (UWS, level 9) | 10th student edition, June 2021 | Two new chapters, on the context of nursing and on self-care and wellbeing |
| Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing | The 2021 edition (NSU) | 16th, 14 October 2025 | A fourth author, over 300 fewer pages, and clinical judgement exercises for NCLEX preparation |
| Potter & Perry's Fundamentals of Nursing, ANZ | 5th, 2016 (ACU, first unit); 6th, 2021 (ACU, second unit) | 7th, December 2025 | A new chapter on sustainability and planetary health, and Clint Douglas as first-named editor |
| Havard's Nursing Guide to Drugs | 11th, 2021 (ACU) | 12th, 26 February 2026 | Every drug reviewed for Australian practice; TGA scheduling for Schedule 8 medicines |
| Ross and Wilson Anatomy and Physiology in Health and Illness | 13th, 2018 (York) | 14th, 2022 | More illustrations, a first introduction to surface anatomy, and updates including coronavirus |
The rows come from the lists (University of the West of Scotland, 2026a, 2026d; Australian Catholic University, 2026a, 2026b; University of York, 2026) and the publishers' pages (Wiley, n.d.; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, n.d.; Elsevier, n.d.-a, n.d.-b, n.d.-c). UWS and ACU expect it: every UWS nursing descriptor tells students to confirm the most up-to-date material at the start of session, and an ACU unit says its list, finalised in 2024, will be revised before it runs (Australian Catholic University, 2026d).
Drug references date fastest
A textbook edition two years old may still teach anatomy well; a drug reference two years old may give the wrong dose. BNF 91 came out on 18 March 2026 (Joint Formulary Committee, 2026a) and BNF 92 on 10 September 2026, and the page for BNF 92 lists new monographs and new safety advice, including on GLP-1 receptor agonists (Joint Formulary Committee, 2026b). Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses is in its 20th edition, copyright 2026 (Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026).
Choosing an edition, step by step
- Copy the list entry exactly: author or editors, title, edition, year and ISBN if given.
- Search the title in EdCitation's Library and sort newest first: the editions it holds appear with their years and publishers.
- If a newer edition exists, read what changed on the publisher's page, and ask the module lead which one to use.
- For a drug guide or formulary, use the current one. UWS's descriptors point to the BNF online.
- Buy it, find it in a library near you, or keep it in My Books until you do.
- Note the edition you actually read, and build its reference from the ISBN in Cite a source.
How do I cite a nursing textbook in APA 7?
Cite the whole book with the author or editors, the copyright year, the title in italics and sentence case, the edition in brackets, and the publisher, with no place of publication. The American Psychological Association (2020) takes the year from the copyright page, even when the release date differs, and uses one format for print and ebook.
A textbook by one author or team
Ross and Wilson is written by two authors throughout, so it is referenced as a whole:
Waugh, A., & Grant, A. (2022). Ross & Wilson anatomy and physiology in health and illness (14th ed.). Elsevier.
In the text: (Waugh & Grant, 2022). When a book's chapters are not written by different authors, the University of Queensland Library (2026) says to reference only the book; name the chapter in your sentence. Check the year: Elsevier's page dates the 14th edition 2022, UWS's level 9 module 2023 (University of the West of Scotland, 2026d), and the copyright page settles it.
A chapter in an edited textbook
The Royal Marsden manual is edited, and its chapters have their own authors, so a chapter is referenced under its author. The first chapter of the student edition is by Sara Lister (Lister, 2021). In the pattern of APA's edited book chapter example (American Psychological Association, 2025):
Lister, S. (2021). The context of nursing. In S. Lister, J. Hofland, H. Grafton, & C. Wilson (Eds.), The Royal Marsden manual of clinical nursing procedures: Student edition (10th ed., pp. 1–12). Wiley-Blackwell.
In the text: (Lister, 2021). The title page credits Catherine Wilson after the word "with", and Wiley's page lists her as an editor. Copy editors from the title page, not from a reading list: the NMC's own Test of Competence list names the tenth edition's editors in two different ways, one of them with Lisa Dougherty, an editor of the 2011 edition, in place of Sara Lister (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2023).
Every chapter case is in how to cite a textbook chapter, the whole book in four styles in how to cite a book or ebook, and a single drug guide entry in nursing APA citations.
Building the reference from the ISBN
Three ISBNs went into EdCitation's Cite a source, free with no account, for this guide. It builds each entry from the publisher's record and never writes one. For Ross and Wilson it returned Waugh and Grant, 2022, Elsevier, with the title in sentence case and no edition: add "(14th ed.)". For the Royal Marsden student edition it returned the four names and 2021, as authors and with no edition: add "(Eds.)" and "(10th ed.)", and write the publisher as the title page does. For the seventh ANZ Potter & Perry's it answered that no book is recorded under that ISBN, and made nothing up; build that one from the title page.
Where can I find nursing books in one place?
In EdCitation's Library, the best place to find nursing textbooks together, because a nursing student's books are scattered across publishers, editions and countries, and the Library puts them in one catalogue. Tracing five of the editions in this guide took four universities' lists and five publisher pages; in the Library, one search for the Royal Marsden manual, sorted newest first, set the 2021, 2015 and 2011 editions side by side, each with its year and publisher. UWS's first-year module names the 2011 edition, its level 9 module the 2021 one.
What the Library shows
The catalogue is searched by title, author, subject or ISBN, and narrowed by discipline, kind of book, language, length and year. Nursing, pharmacology, and anatomy and physiology are three of its 31 disciplines; textbooks, handbooks and manuals, and study guides are among its kinds. Searches for this guide found Brunner & Suddarth's across its editions, Havard's up to its 12th edition, Essentials of Nursing Research, Alexander's Nursing Practice and numbered editions of the BNF. Each book comes with its cover, authors, publisher and year, and whether it opens in the Library or is one to buy.
From the same card you can buy a paid book, find the libraries near you that hold it, keep it in My Books, or cite it in a click. With Max, you can read or borrow from more than 5 million books, a collection EdCitation compiled for students and readers. It is where EdCitation is heading: the books a degree needs, found, kept and cited in one place.
What each part costs
Searching the catalogue, My Books, buying a book and finding it in a library near you come with an EdCitation account; reading and borrowing books in the Library is part of Max, $24 a month or $216 a year, which also brings Theoretics QA. Cite a source and Verify references, which checks a finished reference list against the publishers' records, need no account at all. Plans are on Pricing.
What it does not decide for you
The Library sets editions side by side; your module decides which one you need, and doses come from the current formulary. Markers also want research, which EdCitation's Find sources searches across about 300 million published works.
Quick questions
What are the best nursing textbooks for first-year students?
The ones on your module list. First-year lists read here set a fundamentals text, such as Essentials of Nursing Practice or Potter & Perry's Fundamentals of Nursing, with anatomy and physiology and pharmacology texts.
Can I use an older edition of a nursing textbook?
Often, if your module lead agrees; lists themselves name older editions. Not for a drug guide or formulary, where doses and safety advice change: the BNF alone had two editions in 2026.
Is there a free nursing textbook?
Yes. OpenStax publishes eight nursing textbooks free to read online, including Fundamentals of Nursing and Pharmacology for Nurses, under a Creative Commons licence.
How do I cite the Royal Marsden manual in APA 7?
Cite the chapter under its own author, then "In", the editors with "(Eds.)", the italic title, the edition and pages in brackets, and Wiley-Blackwell. Chapter 1 of the tenth student edition is by Sara Lister, 2021.
Where can I find nursing books in one place?
In EdCitation's Library: one catalogue searched by discipline, kind, language and year, with My Books and, with Max, more than 5 million books to read or borrow.
References
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Book/ebook references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references
- American Psychological Association. (2025). APA Style common reference examples guide. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf
- Australian Catholic University. (2026a). NRSG139: Integrating practice 1: Assessment in health. Handbook 2026. https://www.acu.edu.au/handbook/handbook-2026/unit/nrsg139
- Australian Catholic University. (2026b). NRSG140: Integrating practice 2. Handbook 2026. https://www.acu.edu.au/handbook/handbook-2026/unit/nrsg140
- Australian Catholic University. (2026c). NRSG258: Principles of nursing: Surgical. Handbook 2026. https://www.acu.edu.au/handbook/handbook-2026/unit/nrsg258
- Australian Catholic University. (2026d). NRSG263: Principles of nursing: Mental health. Handbook 2026. https://www.acu.edu.au/handbook/handbook-2026/unit/nrsg263
- Elsevier. (n.d.-a). Havard's nursing guide to drugs 12e. Elsevier Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.elsevierhealth.com.au/havards-nursing-guide-to-drugs-12e-9780729599238.html
- Elsevier. (n.d.-b). Potter & Perry's fundamentals of nursing ANZ edition (7th ed.). Elsevier Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.elsevierhealth.com.au/potter-perrys-fundamentals-of-nursing-anz-edition-9780729544870.html
- Elsevier. (n.d.-c). Ross & Wilson anatomy and physiology in health and illness (14th ed.). Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://shop.elsevier.com/books/ross-and-wilson-anatomy-and-physiology-in-health-and-illness/waugh/978-0-323-83460-5
- Joint Formulary Committee. (2026a). British National Formulary (BNF 91): March 2026 [Advance book information]. Pharmaceutical Press. https://www.pharmaceuticalpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ABI_BNF91_9780857114969.pdf
- Joint Formulary Committee. (2026b). British National Formulary (BNF) 92. Pharmaceutical Press. https://www.pharmaceuticalpress.com/product/british-national-formulary-bnf-92
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. (n.d.). Brunner & Suddarth's textbook of medical-surgical nursing (16th ed.). Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://shop.lww.com/Brunner---Suddarth-s-Textbook-of-Medical-Surgical-Nursing/p/9781975221133
- Lister, S. (2021). The context of nursing. In S. Lister, J. Hofland, H. Grafton, & C. Wilson (Eds.), The Royal Marsden manual of clinical nursing procedures: Student edition (10th ed., pp. 1–12). Wiley-Blackwell. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Royal+Marsden+Manual+of+Clinical+Nursing+Procedures,+Student+Edition,+10th+Edition-p-9781119532965
- Nova Southeastern University Health Library. (2026). Required books: Entry level BSN. https://libguides.nova.edu/c.php?g=112208&p=5233535
- Nursing and Midwifery Council. (2023). Test of Competence 2021: Reading list: Adult nursing (Version 2) [PDF]. https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/registration/toc-materials-2023/marking-docs/rn1-adult-nursing-reading-list-2021.pdf
- OpenStax. (n.d.-a). Nursing. Rice University. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://openstax.org/subjects/nursing
- OpenStax. (n.d.-b). Pharmacology for nurses. Rice University. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://openstax.org/details/books/pharmacology
- University of Queensland Library. (2026). Book chapter: APA 7th referencing style. https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing/apa7/book-chapter
- University of the West of Scotland. (2026a). Biosciences for health (NURS07061) [Module descriptor, session 2026/27]. https://psmd.uws.ac.uk/UWS/Module-Descriptors/Health-and-Life-Sciences/Year-1/NURS07061%20Biosciences%20for%20Health_26_27.pdf
- University of the West of Scotland. (2026b). Essentials of adult nursing (NURS07062) [Module descriptor, session 2026/27]. https://psmd.uws.ac.uk/UWS/Module-Descriptors/Health-and-Life-Sciences/Year-1/NURS07062%20Essentials%20of%20Adult%20Nursing_26_27.pdf
- University of the West of Scotland. (2026c). Critical appraisal of care (NURS09218) [Module descriptor, session 2026/27]. https://psmd.uws.ac.uk/UWS/Module-Descriptors/Health-and-Life-Sciences/Year-3/NURS09218%20Critical%20Appraisal%20of%20Care_26_27.pdf
- University of the West of Scotland. (2026d). Skills for holistic healthcare practice (NURS09225) [Module descriptor, session 2026/27]. https://psmd.uws.ac.uk/UWS/Module-Descriptors/Health-and-Life-Sciences/Year-3/NURS09225%20Skills%20for%20Holistic%20Healthcare%20Practice_26_27.pdf
- University of York. (2026). Physiology & pharmacology applied to nursing (HEA00130M) 2026-27. Module catalogue. https://www.york.ac.uk/students/studying/manage/programmes/module-catalogue/module/HEA00130M/2026-27
- Vallerand, A. H., & Sanoski, C. A. (2026). Davis's drug guide for nurses (20th ed.). F.A. Davis Company. https://www.drugguide.com/ddo/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51000/all/
- Wiley. (n.d.). The Royal Marsden manual of clinical nursing procedures, student edition, 10th edition. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Royal+Marsden+Manual+of+Clinical+Nursing+Procedures,+Student+Edition,+10th+Edition-p-9781119532965