UAE Nursing License Exam Guide 2026 - DHA, DoH and MOHAP

The most important nursing-licensing decision is not which exam appears easier. It is which professional title the qualification supports and which authority regulates the intended facility. Registered Nurse, Assistant Nurse, Nurse Practitioner, Specialty Nurse and midwifery titles have different qualification, experience, scope and assessment rules.

Every figure in this guide is checked against the official regulator sources linked below — last verified 8 August 2026.

Choose the authority before opening a case

• DHA handles registration for nurses joining DHA-licensed facilities in Dubai.
• DoH licenses nurses in Abu Dhabi through TAMM.
• MOHAP provides evaluation and licensing services for facilities under its federal jurisdiction.
• Sharjah Health Authority is a separate PQR authority. Confirm the facility regulator instead of treating “Northern Emirates” as one automatic MOHAP route.

The unified PQR sets common minimums, but it does not make the portals interchangeable. DHA registration, DoH licensing and MOHAP evaluation are different processes and produce different documents.

Match the qualification to the nursing title

The current PQR maps the main entry titles as follows:

• Registered Nurse: bachelor's degree in nursing. The PQR table states no experience required, subject to practice-gap rules and local credential review.
• Assistant Nurse: nursing diploma of at least 18 months. The PQR table states no experience required, subject to practice-gap rules. An Assistant Nurse cannot practise independently and works under a Registered Nurse.
• Nurse Practitioner: first meet Registered Nurse requirements, then hold the specified advanced clinical master's, doctorate or national NP certification or licence. The PQR requires two years of post-qualification NP experience.
• Specialty Nurse: qualification and experience depend on the route. A clinical master's or postgraduate clinical specialty qualification normally requires one year in the related specialty; the bachelor's specialty route normally requires two.

A diploma holder should not apply as Registered Nurse merely because an employer uses “staff nurse” in a vacancy. Likewise, ICU, paediatric or community experience does not by itself create a Specialty Nurse title. Apply under the title supported by the academic credential and PQR.

Check registration, good standing, BLS and gaps

Nursing applicants normally need a valid home-country or last-country licence or registration. Where experience is required, that registration should cover the experience period used in the application. The current PQR requires a Good Standing Certificate that is generally no more than six months old and is issued by the regulator in the country of last employment. An authority may consider an official last-employer certificate where no regulator exists.

The PQR also requires nurses and midwives to hold at least valid Basic Life Support certification, or another certification required by the scope. An academic transcript is part of title credentialing.

Do not reduce practice gaps to one universal number:

• The PQR applies a remediation framework after a clinical-practice gap exceeds three years and generally bars non-UAE nationals after a gap exceeding five years.
• DoH's current nursing workflow asks for recent practice where a title requires experience and applies recency conditions to no-experience routes.
• MOHAP's evaluation page says the practice gap must not exceed three years, while its later licensing service can request training details when the gap is two years or more.
• DHA applies the PQR and may require reassessment after gap remediation.

If a degree is recent but the professional registration is old, or vice versa, ask the authority to review the actual chronology.

Follow the authority-specific workflow

DHA

1. Select the exact nursing title in the Sheryan self-assessment.
2. Request Review Registration Eligibility if the automated result does not fit the documented qualification.
3. Submit the required documents for PSV.
4. Complete the CBT if required. DHA permits PSV and CBT to run at the same time.
5. Apply for Get Registered after prerequisites are complete.
6. Have a DHA-licensed facility activate the registration into a licence before practising.

DHA's current CBT guide separately lists both Registered Nurse and Assistant Nurse as 150-question, three-hour MCQ assessments delivered through Prometric, each with a 50% pass score. Those numbers belong only to the listed DHA titles and current guide; they are not a UAE-wide nursing format.

DoH

1. Create a TAMM profile using UAE PASS.
2. Complete PSV for the qualification, transcript, registration and any experience evidence requested.
3. Submit the DoH title for credential review.
4. If approved for CBT, pay in TAMM and schedule through the Pearson VUE link in the case.
5. Complete the remaining security-clearance and facility-linked licensing steps.

The current DoH manual lists Registered Nurse, Assistant Nurse, School Nurse and Registered Midwife as CBT titles. Its table shows 150 MCQs in three hours for Registered Nurse and 100 MCQs in two hours for the other listed CBT titles. Advanced nursing titles may use oral assessment instead. The title shown in the approved case controls.

MOHAP

1. Check the nursing title in the PQR.
2. Apply for Health Professional Evaluation through MOHAP using UAE PASS.
3. Upload the qualification, academic record, prior DataFlow reports, and exemption evidence if applicable.
4. Follow the verification and Prometric steps generated after the evaluation review.
5. Use the evaluation certificate in the later employer or facility licensing process.

MOHAP's public evaluation FAQ identifies the Prometric outcome as Pass or Fail with a 60% minimum. It does not publish a universal nursing question count or duration on the service page. Use the approved title and booking notice for the actual appointment.

Build a clean document checklist

Prepare:

• passport and recent photograph;
• nursing degree or diploma;
• full academic transcript showing programme duration and clinical content;
• high-school certificate when the authority requests it for a below-bachelor route;
• nursing licence or registration from the relevant country;
• Good Standing Certificate within the accepted validity window;
• experience letters for any title or exception that requires experience;
• valid BLS card;
• legal translation plus the original document where required;
• previous PSV or DataFlow reports;
• exam-equivalency evidence, if claimed; and
• authority-specific identity, family-book, nomination or offer documents.

An experience letter should state the licensed title, facility, department, employment status, exact dates and clinical duties. For specialist practice, it should show the specialty rather than a generic “staff nurse” description.

Before submission, reconcile:

• passport name against degree and licence;
• programme duration against transcript;
• employment dates against registration validity;
• Good Standing issuer against country of last practice; and
• title selected in the portal against the PQR title.

Understand what PSV proves

PSV checks a document with the issuing institution. It does not decide that a diploma equals a bachelor's degree, that general ward experience equals a specialty qualification, or that an applicant is eligible. Credentialing and title decisions remain with the authority.

The PQR identifies qualifications, experience and professional registration among the documents that may be verified. Existing UAE verification reports may be transferable, but the receiving authority can request further verification. Upload prior reports through the official case rather than purchasing a duplicate package without review.

An exam exemption also waives only the assessment step. The PQR's nursing equivalency criteria depend on specified current registrations or examinations and conditions. It does not waive title, PSV, registration, good-standing or gap requirements.

Prepare from the nursing outline

DHA's current Registered Nurse outline points to these practical domains:

• nursing fundamentals and health assessment;
• adult medical-surgical and critical care;
• maternal-newborn care;
• paediatrics;
• mental-health nursing;
• community health;
• pharmacology, medication safety and nutrition;
• infection prevention;
• ethics, documentation, delegation and leadership.

Do not assign unofficial percentages to these areas. Build a matrix with each domain down the left and these decisions across the top:

1. immediate assessment;
2. first nursing action;
3. deterioration or escalation trigger;
4. safe medication action;
5. isolation or infection-control measure;
6. patient education;
7. delegation and scope; and
8. documentation or ethics.

Study one domain, then answer mixed scenarios so that the stem—not the chapter heading—tells you what to do.

Use a nursing question-review template

Review every wrong, guessed or slow question with:

1. Patient risk: stable, urgent or immediately life-threatening?
2. Nursing priority: airway, breathing, circulation, safety, assessment or escalation?
3. Scope: what can the RN do, what can be delegated, and what requires an order?
4. Data clue: which vital sign, laboratory value, symptom or trend changed priority?
5. Best action now: why before the other reasonable actions?
6. Unsafe distractor: what harm, delay or scope breach makes it wrong?
7. Reusable rule: one sentence to apply to a different case.
8. Source date: current guideline used to correct the note.

Maintain separate error tags for knowledge, priority, delegation, medication calculation and stem-reading. Re-test the rule after a few days with a new scenario.

Sequence the application and preparation

1. Confirm the intended facility's regulator.
2. Map the qualification to Registered Nurse, Assistant Nurse or another exact title.
3. Check title-specific experience, BLS, registration and gap rules.
4. Correct name and chronology discrepancies.
5. Obtain a fresh Good Standing Certificate.
6. Start the authority's eligibility or evaluation case.
7. Complete PSV and assessment in that authority's permitted order.
8. Prepare from the current title outline while verification proceeds.
9. Pay only official case, verification and booking charges shown for the selected title.
10. Complete facility activation or final licensing before beginning work.

There is no dependable single nursing-licence fee or promised timeline. Verification scope, extra documents, title review, assessment and facility activation are separate.

Common mistakes

• Applying as Registered Nurse with a diploma that maps to Assistant Nurse.
• Buying verification before confirming the authority and exact title.
• Using an employer experience letter that omits the licensed title or clinical duties.
• Submitting a Good Standing Certificate from the wrong country of last practice.
• Assuming “no experience required” also means no registration, BLS, PSV or gap review.
• Preparing from recalled questions instead of the current title outline.
• Treating an exam pass or evaluation certificate as a practising licence.

Quick answers

Does a bachelor's degree guarantee the Registered Nurse title? No. It supports the qualification requirement, but the authority still reviews accreditation, transcript, registration, good standing, PSV, practice gap and any local conditions.

Does Registered Nurse currently require experience? The unified PQR table states no experience required for the bachelor's RN route. Local workflows still apply recency, gap and credential checks, so submit the real chronology and wait for the authority decision.

Can an Assistant Nurse work independently? No. The PQR states that Assistant Nurses work under a Registered Nurse.

Is BLS required? The PQR requires nurses and midwives to hold at least valid BLS, or another certification required by scope.

Who delivers the CBT? DHA uses Prometric. DoH-approved CBT candidates schedule through Pearson VUE from TAMM. MOHAP identifies its assessment as Prometric. The authority case controls whether the selected title has CBT, oral assessment or an exemption.

How many attempts are allowed? The PQR provides three attempts across authorities and a conditional final attempt. Local procedures differ: MOHAP says no fourth attempt is available through MOHAP. Always disclose prior attempts; changing authority is not a reset.

Can I transfer an existing UAE licence without another exam? The PQR provides exam-equivalency and licence-recognition routes, but exemption is conditional. The receiving authority still checks the title, active licence, good standing, PSV and gap.

How long is the licence valid? Do not combine unlike documents. DHA registration is currently valid for one year and needs facility activation. DoH's current manual describes a two-year professional licence. MOHAP's evaluation certificate is not itself the facility licence.