Alerts and Updates for DHA Nursing Exam (Dubai Health Authority)

No negative marking is reported, so every question should be answered. Results are released as pass or fail without a numerical score, which means there is no partial credit to argue about and no diagnostic report to plan a retake around. The figures in this table come from licensing consultancies and preparation portals rather than from a DHA document this page could fetch, and the two sources disagree on whether the test runs 165 minutes or a full three hours.

This is a licensing assessment, not an admission test, so the useful planning unit is elapsed time rather than a date. The long pole is DataFlow primary source verification, which is reported at roughly three to six weeks and must finish before a Prometric slot can be booked, so a candidate starting from scratch should budget two to four months from opening a Sheryan account to holding a licence.

Nurses treat this as an exam to be booked and passed, and then find that the exam was the short part. The assessment sits in the middle of a licensing chain that starts with a Sheryan self-assessment and ends with licence activation, and the slowest link is DataFlow primary source verification, which is reported at three to six weeks and must complete before a Prometric slot opens. The exam itself is one afternoon.

Costings quoted publicly disagree, which is itself worth knowing before budgeting. HealthBridge, a Dubai licensing consultancy, breaks the nursing pathway into DataFlow primary source verification at about 935 AED, a DHA application fee of 250 to 500 AED, a Prometric exam fee of 500 to 700 AED and licence issuance of 1,000 to 1,500 AED, putting total authority costs in the region of 2,700 to 4,600 AED. Academically, a preparation provider, instead puts the exam fee alone at 1,000 to 1,200 AED. Neither figure comes from a DHA schedule this page could fetch. Confirm the current amounts inside Sheryan at the point of payment and treat quoted totals as indicative.

On the reported blueprint, adult nursing accounts for 43 per cent of the paper and fundamentals for a further 28 per cent, which together is roughly seven questions in ten. Maternal and child nursing is 16 per cent and management and leadership 13 per cent. With 150 questions and a 50 per cent pass mark for registered nurses, you need about 75 correct answers, and adult nursing alone offers around 64 of them. A candidate who is solid on adult medical-surgical content and competent on fundamentals is already close to the line before touching the two smaller domains. That is where revision hours should go first.

The reported limit is three attempts, after which a further sitting requires additional qualifications. Results are released within about two working days as pass or fail with no numerical score. Those two facts compound: you cannot see how close you came, which domain sank you, or whether you were one question short, so there is no diagnostic basis for a targeted retake. The sensible response is to over-prepare the first sitting rather than treating it as a trial run. Work through full 150-question mock papers under time, in the reported blueprint proportions, and only book when you are clearing them comfortably above the threshold.

Reported requirements have not been stable. Academically describes a minimum of two years of clinical experience beyond internship, a home-country registration, a good standing certificate no older than six months and an English proficiency certificate. HealthBridge reports a 2026 position in which the experience requirement is waived for nurses who graduated within the last 24 months, with two years still the general rule and three or more for specialists. eNursing Portal separately reports that specialty nurses need a post-graduate certification plus a year of related experience. If you are a recent graduate, this difference decides whether you can apply at all, so verify it in the Sheryan self-assessment before paying for DataFlow.

MoHAP launched a National Licensing Platform on 1 February 2025, promising a single standardised practice licence recognised nationwide, unified evaluation of certificates and experience, and easier movement between federal, local and private employers. Gulf News reports a broader unified digital platform covering MoHAP, DOH Abu Dhabi, DHA and the Sharjah Health Authority expected in the second quarter of 2026, with a single practitioner profile across authorities. Nothing published so far says the DHA nursing assessment is being withdrawn. The practical reading is that the exam continues while the paperwork around it converges, and that documents verified once should become reusable across emirates.