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New Study Shows That Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness® Improves Student Performance

Mar 19, 2025, 10:58 AM by ATI Staff

A published analysis of student performance before and after adoption of an academic preparatory and readiness program developed by ATI Nursing Education documented statistically significant improvements that contribute to higher first-year retention rates.

The study, published in the March 2025 edition of Teaching and Learning in Nursing, compared proctored assessment data for 1,350 students enrolled in nursing fundamentals courses at associate and practical nursing degree programs using Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness® (LNAR).

“The results provide evidence that schools using LNAR have higher fundamentals scores than those that do not,” said study coauthor Kari Hodge PhD, ICE-CCP, a psychometric and applied research manager at Ascend Learning. ATI Nursing Education is an Ascend Learning brand.

The study findings come at an opportune time for academic nursing programs, many of which struggle to retain incoming students.

Dr. Beth Phillips is Strategic Nursing Advisor at ATI“It is clear that students need help even after acceptance into a nursing program,” said lead author Beth Cusatis Phillips, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE, a nursing content strategist for ATI and Ascend Learning. “LNAR provides that help without placing extra burdens on faculty. And programs that can retain more first-year students will improve their program retention rates overall.”

Study Methods and Findings

This retrospective exploration used secondary data from 8 nursing programs that had adopted Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness between spring 2022 and winter 2024. Phillips and Hodge compared scores from proctored assessments administered to students in nursing fundamentals courses before and after adoption of LNAR. Each cohort completed LNAR and the ATI Content Mastery Series for Fundamentals (CMS-F).

LNAR is a unique academic readiness program that addresses the most common gaps in preparedness for nursing school success. It provides a customized asynchronous learning path facilitated by an ATI Educator. Using the results of each student’s pre-program assessment, an ATI Educator assigns interactive learning modules for anatomy and physiology, reading, math, science and English language usage. Each student also completes modules on study skills, classroom skills and test-taking strategies. The ATI Educator monitors each student’s progress and, in partnership with program faculty, provides direction and feedback until the student completes the program.

For their analysis, Phillips and Hodge compared pre- and post-adoption scores on proctored CMS-F exams and found statistically significant differences.

Implications for Nursing Programs

The findings of this analysis demonstrate the important differences that a customized, student-led, educator-guided academic readiness program can make in first-year attrition.

The Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness program continues to grow in scope and features. In 2025, ATI Nursing Education introduced new math basics and medical terminology content, and it enhanced the anatomy and physiology content to provide pre- and post-module assessments. ATI also introduced a module focused on student well-being and the skills necessary for strong mental health, a growth mindset, and the formation of professional identity.

”Once students get into a program, it is important to do everything we can to help them be successful,” Phillips said. “ LNAR can be that bridge to student success.”   

Read more about Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness, including use cases by nursing programs, on the ATI Educator Blog:

 

Reference

Phillips, B.C., Hodge, K. (2025). Enhancing student retention in nursing education: strategies and interventions. Teaching and Learning in Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2025.02.018