Our story
About NursingCEA
We’re a free practice-and-study resource for nurses and nursing students — built to make high-quality exam prep genuinely accessible, not gated behind a paywall.
Who we are
NursingCEA is a free resource offering original, NCLEX-style practice questions and study material for nurses and nursing students. Today the site has 1 published practice questions and counting, across the CNA, Patient Care Technician, Phlebotomy, NCLEX-PN (LPN/LVN), and NCLEX-RN exams.
NursingCEA was founded by Michael Pastrano. The site started from a simple observation: nursing students and working nurses need to practice constantly to prepare for licensure and certification exams, and the existing options are often expensive, limited, or both. NursingCEA is his answer to that — a place to practice for free, for as long as it takes.
Michael Pastrano
Founder, NursingCEA
Why we built it
We wanted nursing exam prep that’s genuinely free and accessible — not a limited trial, not a handful of sample questions behind a signup wall. Every question on the site is original and every answer is explained and cited to a real clinical source (a nursing textbook or clinical guideline), so you’re not just memorizing a letter — you’re learning the reasoning an exam question is actually testing.
That’s true across every stage of the path we cover: CNA, Patient Care Technician, Phlebotomy, NCLEX-PN (LPN/LVN), and NCLEX-RN. One free account, no limit on how much you practice.
Our mission
Help nurses and nursing students in all 50 states prepare with free, trustworthy practice — and keep growing the largest free nursing question bank we can build. We measure our progress by whether people actually feel more prepared after using the site, not by revenue. If that means someone passes their exam using nothing but the free tools here, that’s the whole point.
What makes us different
Free, unlimited practice
No paywall, no question limit, no credit card. Practice as much as you want, whenever you want.
A growing, original question bank
Every question is written from scratch for NursingCEA — never copied or paraphrased from a commercial bank — and the library keeps growing week over week.
Cited rationales, not just answers
Every question explains why the correct answer is right and why each distractor is wrong, citing a real nursing textbook or clinical guideline — so you learn the reasoning, not just the letter.
An AI study tutor
Stuck on a rationale? Ask the built-in tutor to explain it a different way, right on the question you're studying.
Media-rich items
ECG strips, lab panels, and clinical charts appear right in the question stem where the real exam would show them — not described in a paragraph.
The whole career ladder
One free account covers practice across the CNA, Patient Care Technician, Phlebotomy, NCLEX-PN (LPN/LVN), and NCLEX-RN exams — wherever you are on the path.
A note on what we are — and aren’t
- NursingCEA is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), and NCLEX® / NCLEX-RN® / NCLEX-PN® are their registered trademarks — we reference them only to describe the exams our practice material helps you prepare for.
- NursingCEA does not provide continuing-education (CE) credit, contact hours, certificates, or professional certification, and we are not accredited by any board or credentialing body. Nothing here satisfies a licensure, certification, or renewal requirement.
- All content is for practice and study only — not medical advice — and individual results vary; using the site is not a guarantee of passing any exam.
See our Disclaimers page for the full notices, including trademarks, medical-accuracy, and third-party services.
Questions, feedback, or ideas? Visit our contact page. For every question and rationale on the site, see how we write our questions.