HESI CPRA offers a reliable and trusted assessment tool to evaluate nursing students’ preparedness for clinical practice

The percentage of practice-ready graduating nursing students has hit single digits in recent years

NEW YORK, March 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Elsevier Health, a global leader in medical information and data analytics, today launched HESI Clinical Practice Readiness Assessment (CPRA), the first standardized, objective, and reliable assessment for faculty to assess nursing students’ clinical judgment and practice readiness.

The Next Generation National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX®) brings nursing students’ clinical judgment to the forefront and has increased the focus on clinical preparedness, an area that studies continually cite as a weakness with new nurses. The number of practice-ready students has declined from 23% to 9%[1], and educators need a reliable method to help measure whether soon-to-be nursing graduates have the necessary knowledge and skills to care for patients safely and independently.

Elsevier’s CPRA offers students a method to demonstrate their critical thinking and decision-making skills by exhibiting key nursing competencies as they provide care for virtual patients. Through high-fidelity, screen-based simulations that include questions in the style of the Next Generation NCLEX® and outcome alignment with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials competency framework, instructors can understand whether students have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to succeed as new nurses in clinical practice. Building on Elsevier’s trusted resources that support the development of clinical judgment, CPRA serves as a cumulative evaluation administered toward the end of nursing programs to measure practice readiness. When used alongside the HESI Exit Exam, programs gain a valid and reliable method to assess graduating students’ preparedness for success on the NCLEX and in practice.

Brent Gordon, President of Nursing & Health Education at Elsevier, said: “Nursing programs that have struggled to measure practice readiness vs. test readiness due to resource constraints and the limitations of currently available assessment frameworks and tools now have a standard, reliable assessment solution with which to measure their students’ clinical competencies. CPRA is essential for nursing student education as an end-of-program assessment.”

 CPRA includes the following features:

Performance Reporting that assigns students an overall practice readiness mastery level (emerging, developing, proficient, or advanced), as well as performance level across the five constructs assessed to enable the identification of student strengths and weaknesses, trends across students, and possible curriculum gaps.Screen-based, High-fidelity Simulations with corresponding secure assessment questions offer a realistic, immersive environment through which students can demonstrate practice readiness by providing care to a variety of virtual patients across the lifespan.Digital Standardized Patients™ Scenarios vary in age, race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, and sexual orientation and have a wide range of health concerns. Their health histories and current concerns are designed to support students’ demonstration of nursing competency in a broad spectrum of medical conditions.Natural Language Conversation Engine allows students to engage with simulated patients using their own words to gather subjective data and provide therapeutic communication.

CPRA’s standardized and reliable evaluation provides a consistent method of assessing nursing students’ practice readiness through scenarios mapped to five practice readiness constructs: assessment, communication, education, safety, clinical judgment.

Paul Crockett, SVP, Product and Learning Research and Design at Elsevier, said: “Standardization of the simulation experience ensures a consistent measure of practice readiness and a means of identifying trends among students and potential gaps in the curriculum. We are addressing these gaps through innovative training tools for new nurses to give them the skills and confidence they need to provide quality patient care. CPRA takes out the variability and inconsistency and provides an objective rubric of success.”

Elsevier Health works with healthcare educators to prepare students for successful careers in medicine, nursing, and health professions by providing world-class, trusted content and innovative learning tools and analytics that improve educational outcomes and ready them for clinical practice.

To learn more about CPRA, please visit our CPRA website.

About Elsevier

As a global leader in scientific information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by facilitating insights and critical decision-making with innovative solutions based on trusted, evidence-based content and advanced AI-enabled digital technologies.

We have supported the work of our research and healthcare communities for more than 140 years. Our 9,500 employees around the world, including 2,500 technologists, are dedicated to supporting researchers, librarians, academic leaders, funders, governments, R&D-intensive companies, doctors, nurses, future healthcare professionals and educators in their critical work. Our 2,900 scientific journals and iconic reference books include the foremost titles in their fields, including Cell Press, The Lancet and Gray’s Anatomy.

Together with the Elsevier Foundation, we work in partnership with the communities we serve to advance inclusion and diversity in science, research and healthcare in developing countries and around the world. 

Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information on our work, digital solutions and content, visit www.elsevier.com. 

About Elsevier Health

For more than 140 years, Elsevier has supported the work of researchers and healthcare professionals by providing current, evidence–based information that can help empower students and clinicians to provide the best healthcare possible. Growing from our roots, Elsevier Health applies innovation, facilitates insights, and helps drive more informed decision-making for our customers across global health. We support health providers by providing accessible, trusted evidence-based information to take on the infodemic; prepare more future health professionals with effective tools and resources; provide insights that help clinicians improve patient outcomes; deliver healthcare that is truly inclusive; and supports a more personalized and localized healthcare experience.

Diversity and inclusion are the foundation of our innovation, and our teams are committed to creating education and practice solutions that reflect the diversity of our world. Elsevier Health is helping lay the groundwork for more equitable healthcare worldwide; We bring the same rigor to our digital information solutions as we do to our publishing, allowing us to offer knowledge and valuable analytics that help our users make breakthroughs and drive progress for the benefit of every patient.

[1] *Kavanagh, J.M., Sharpnack, P.A., (January 31, 2021) “Crisis in Competency: A Defining Moment in Nursing Education” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 26, No. 1, Manuscript 2.

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