Elsevier launches ClinicalKey Nursing AI for bedside nursing questions
Elsevier said Tuesday it globally launched ClinicalKey Nursing AI, a clinical AI tool built specifically for nurses that answers natural-language questions at the point of care with cited, evidence-based nursing content.
Most clinical AI was built for physicians, and nurses still hunt guidelines in the middle of a shift. Elsevier is putting a citation-backed ask box at the bedside, built for nursing, so the answer matches that work.
On Tuesday, 29 September 2026, Elsevier announced the global launch of ClinicalKey Nursing AI. The company calls it a clinical AI tool built specifically for nurses. It is meant to support decisions at the point of care, the moment a nurse is with a patient, and professional growth across a nursing career. The PR Newswire page stamps the release Sep 29, 2026, 08:00 ET, which is 8:00 a.m. Eastern. The dateline is New York. The source line is Elsevier Limited. The subhead says the tool is built to fit nursing workflows and to give nurses fast, traceable answers to clinical questions. Traceable means a nurse can follow an answer back to its source. Those lines are Elsevier’s.
The gap Elsevier names. It says the pressure on nurses keeps rising, and that health systems have started using AI, but that today’s tools focus on physicians and sit apart from a nurse’s day. A physician is a doctor. Elsevier’s Clinician of the Future 2026, Nurses Edition report, as the release cites it, found that 41 percent of nurses use AI for work, compared with 57 percent of doctors. Forty-one percent is about two nurses in five. Fifty-seven percent is a little more than half of doctors. The release says that with few tools made for nursing, nurses are more likely to use tools that are generic, less trustworthy, and not suited to their daily work. Generic, here, means a general chat tool. Those figures are Elsevier’s.
What a nurse can ask. ClinicalKey Nursing AI lets a nurse ask a clinical question in natural language, ordinary words, and get support for daily practice right away. The examples Elsevier names are procedures, medications, and discharge planning. A procedure is a hands-on clinical task. Discharge planning is the work of getting a patient ready to leave. Those lines are Elsevier’s.
Where the answers come from. Elsevier says the tool is purpose-built for nurses and grounded in evidence-based material from Elsevier’s own nursing collection and from reputable nursing organizations. The kinds of content it names are journals, guidelines, and clinical skills. A guideline is a written standard for care. Clinical skills, here, are Elsevier’s step-by-step procedure guides. Elsevier says that material supports a nurse’s judgment at the bedside and keeps the nurse in full control. Answers come with clear citations. Elsevier says nurses then spend less time searching and have more time for care. Those lines are Elsevier’s. In the same release, Elsevier says its nursing solutions are trusted by over 2,800 hospitals worldwide, and that this launch continues that partnership. Over 2,800 is the company’s count for those existing nursing solutions. It is not a count of hospitals already using ClinicalKey Nursing AI.
Tracy Gosselin, chief nurse executive at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said clinical AI designed for nurses’ complex workflows is essential. She said that for too long nurses have relied on tools that are too generic or made for physicians. She said Elsevier has long supported nurses, and that she is delighted a product like ClinicalKey Nursing AI is now available for the profession. That quotation is hers, in the release. The release prints her credentials as PhD, RN, FAAN. RN means registered nurse. The release quotes her hospital. It does not say Memorial Sloan Kettering has purchased the product.
In a pilot with registered nurses, Elsevier says more than nine in ten said ClinicalKey Nursing AI made them more confident in clinical decision-making, and that the tool fitted their daily workflow. Fitted, in that sentence, means it matched the way they already work. More than nine in ten is more than 90 percent. Three quarters said it saved time on their shift. Three quarters is 75 percent, three nurses in four. The release does not say how many nurses were in the pilot. Those results are Elsevier’s.
Dustin Bass, president of the Emergency Nurses Association, said the association has spent five decades delivering evidence-based, practical education for emergency nurses. He said this platform extends that work by giving nurses the information they need when they need it, so they feel more confident and more prepared to care for patients. That quotation is his, in the release. The release prints his credentials as DNP, MHA, RN, CEN, NEA-BC. The Emergency Nurses Association is the U.S. professional group for nurses who work in emergency departments. The release does not say the association is a customer.
The library Elsevier says the tool can cite. Full-text journals include the Journal of Emergency Nursing, AACN Advanced Critical Care, the American Journal of Infection Control, and Geriatric Nursing. AACN is the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Elsevier’s Clinical Skills collections, as the release lists them, cover acute care, critical care, mental health, oncology, and general emergency. Oncology is cancer care. Acute care is hospital care for a sudden or serious illness. The books named are the Emergency Nurses Association’s Emergency Nursing Core Curriculum, Sheehy’s Manual of Emergency Care, the AACN Procedure Manual for Progressive and Critical Care, Critical Care Nursing, and Goldman-Cecil Medicine. Goldman-Cecil is a standard textbook of internal medicine, the specialty that treats adult disease. Those titles are Elsevier’s list.
Omry Bigger, president of clinical solutions at Elsevier, said nurses have told the company they are choosing among AI tools that are generic, tools built for physicians, or no AI support at all. He said ClinicalKey Nursing AI is built only on clinical information nurses can trust, so they can get quick, verified answers without interrupting the workflow. He said Elsevier is proud to offer that to nurses, who play a fundamental role in delivering healthcare. That quotation is his, in the release.
Elsevier says it is rolling out access to ClinicalKey Nursing AI to its customers this year. On a release dated 29 September 2026, this year means the rest of 2026. The release does not print a price.
The product page on elsevier.com calls the same tool a bedside-ready assistant for quick, evidence-based answers to questions in ordinary words. It says every response is grounded in nursing books, journals, clinical skills, and guidelines, with citations that link to the full text. It says clinicians keep reviewing the responses so they stay accurate and lined up with current practice. It says the answers stay inside nursing work: assessments, interventions, monitoring, and procedural care. An assessment is the nurse’s read of the patient. An intervention is the care that follows. The page says a procedure question can open step-by-step guidance from Clinical Skills, and that a nurse can ask a follow-up in ordinary words. It says the tool runs on the web, works on a phone, and sits inside existing ClinicalKey Nursing workflows. It says support is built for acute settings such as medical-surgical units, emergency departments, and critical care. A medical-surgical unit is a general hospital ward. It says the tool uses the same architecture as ClinicalKey AI for physicians, and that the design is aligned with regulation and ready for protected health information under HIPAA. Architecture, here, means the underlying system. HIPAA is the U.S. health-privacy law. Those lines are Elsevier’s, on the product page. The page invites an organization to inquire. It does not print a price. It describes a clinical reference tool. It does not describe a device clearance.
In plain terms, Elsevier said on Tuesday that a nurse can ask, in ordinary words, about a procedure, a medication, or a discharge plan, and get an answer drawn from nursing journals, guidelines, and clinical skills, with a citation attached. The company’s pilot figure is that more than nine in ten registered nurses in that pilot felt more confident and said the tool fit the shift, and that three in four saved time. Existing customers are getting access this year. The pages do not print a price.
The picture is a frame from Elsevier’s ClinicalKey for Nursing AI promo video, the title card on the product page. A laptop sits on a desk. The screen shows the product name, the line “Master the moment,” and a cited answer about a nursing procedure, placing an indwelling urinary catheter. It is the release graphic. It is not a photograph of a named hospital floor.