RNotes® vs Nursing Essentials
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RNotes®
This clinical reference app provides nurses and students with quick access to essential medical information, including guidelines, procedures, and exam preparation tools. It features full-color images, charts, and customizable notes to enhance patient care and learning.
- Quick-reference clinical nursing information
- Updated AHA guidelines
- Full-color images and charts
- NCLEX exam topic indicators
- Step-by-step procedures and assessment guidance
- Customizable notes and highlights
- Nursing alerts for critical safety information
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** The essential clinical companion for nurses and students ** ABOUT RNOTES® RNotes is a quick-reference application that puts the latest clinically-focused nursing information at your fingertips, helping you improve patient care. Find answers fast by browsing or searching, then review clinical findings, collaborative management, and quick-read information along with full-color images and charts. The latest edition also helps students prepare for the NCLEX examinations by noting topics that are covered on the exam. FEATURES • Answers to the questions faced in clinical rotations • Updated AHA guidelines • Full-color images and figures • NCLEX icons indicating topics found on licensure exam • Step-by-step procedures and enhanced physical assessment guidance • Details for interpreting ECG, lab values, priority interventions, and more • Convenient tables and charts for finding information quickly • Ability to make custom notes and highlights within entries • Nursing alerts highlighting critical safety information • “Favorites” for bookmarking important topics Author: Ehren Myers Publisher: F.A. Davis Powered by: Unbound Medicine Unbound Privacy Policy: www.unboundmedicine.com/privacy Unbound Terms of Use: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/end_user_license_agreement
Nursing Essentials
This app provides a comprehensive collection of medical information and tools for nurses, including drug and disease monographs, lab test values, and clinical calculators. It offers quick access to essential data for both students and practicing nurses, with offline functionality and smart search capabilities.
- Drug and disease monographs
- Lab test values
- Clinical calculators
- Nursing skills guides
- SmartSearch technology
- Offline access
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"Try before you buy" - Download the FREE App, which includes sample content. An in-App purchase is required to unlock all content. Nursing Essentials is a useful collection of medical information and tools for nurses in education and practice, including Drug and Disease monographs, Lab Tests with values, Clinical Calculators and much more - an essential pocket companion for nurses. Are you struggling with information overload? Want to quickly calculate an Infusion Does, just plug in the values into IV Calculator for Infusion Dose. Need to brush up on your Urine collection skills, get step by step information for catheter, midstream or 24 hour collection. Need to know renal dosing adjustments for Loratadine, look it up in the drug information. Nursing Essentials packages the information you need as a student or in practice in an easy to use app, saving you time and providing reliable content. Key Features * Disease index * Lab tests - creatinine, A1C, PSA, TSH * Medical Calculators - calculate BMI, drip rates, pediatric considerations, glucose to HgbA1C conversions and more * Trauma grading * Nursing skills * Synonym index of common tests and drug information No internet connection is required to access the content after the initial download. Find information quickly using powerful SmartSearch technology. Search part of term for those hard to spell medical terms. Content licensed from printed ISBN 10: Content licensed from printed ISBN 13: SUBSCRIPTION : Please choose an auto renewable subscription plan to receive content access & continuous updates. Your subscription automatically renews as per your plan, so you always have the latest content. Yearly auto-renewing payments - $0 Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Subscription may be managed by the user & auto-renewal can be disabled at any time by going to your device “Settings” and tapping “iTunes & App Store”. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. If you have any questions or comments, email us any time: customersupport@skyscape.com or call 508-299-30000 Privacy Policy-https://www.skyscape.com/terms-of-service/privacypolicy.aspx Terms and Conditions-https://www.skyscape.com/terms-of-service/licenseagreement.aspx Editor(s): Skyscape Publisher: Skyscape
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Nursing Essentials at 100% against RNotes®'s 0%. Nursing Essentials also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 7 months). RNotes®'s advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.0) and ads (none vs shown). On price, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. RNotes® sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Nursing Essentials asks for nothing beyond the download.
RNotes® holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RNotes® has 41 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of RNotes®'s written reviews are positive against 100% of Nursing Essentials's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
RNotes® ships an update every 7 months, Nursing Essentials every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RNotes® | Nursing Essentials |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (41 ratings) — better | 4.0 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 41 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 149 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Unbound Medicine, Inc. | Skyscape Medpresso Inc |
Customer experience
RNotes®
Nursing Essentials
In-app purchases
RNotes®
- RNotes® 4th Edition$29.99
- RNotes® 5th Edition$29.99
- RNotes$29.99
Nursing Essentials
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is RNotes® free?
Is Nursing Essentials free?
Which has better reviews, RNotes® or Nursing Essentials?
Do RNotes® or Nursing Essentials have ads?
Which is updated more often, RNotes® or Nursing Essentials?
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