HESI stands for Health Education Systems, Inc.
It is a company that develops standardized assessments used primarily by nursing schools and healthcare education programs in the United States. The exams are designed to evaluate students’ academic readiness, predict success on the NCLEX, and support program outcomes.
The most well-known exam is the HESI Admission Assessment (A2), used for nursing school admissions. Other exams include subject-specific exit exams (e.g., HESI Exit Exam) that help predict NCLEX performance.
While it is often used interchangeably with its exams, the name itself comes from the original organization—Health Education Systems, Inc.—which is now a division of Elsevier, a global leader in medical publishing and education technology.