Checked 25 October 2026. Exam facts from NHRA's licensure-examination guide, its Nursing PQR (v2.2, Oct 2022), its nursing examination references and the Licensure Exams page of its Health Profession Regulation section, and Prometric's NHRA page, read 25 Oct 2026. NHRA publishes no question count or blueprint.
These are four practice questions for the Bahrain Nursing Licensure Examination, the exam NHRA requires of nurses, unless an exemption applies, and runs through Prometric. There is one question from each of four areas: fundamentals and safety, adult medical-surgical nursing, perioperative nursing, and maternal-newborn nursing. Each has four options and one correct answer, and the answer below it explains the nursing principle behind it. They are not NHRA or Prometric questions: the NHRA documents we read contain no sample questions, and these are ProSyllabus's own, the four questions of our practice test's free sample.
ProSyllabus is an independent study site. It is not part of NHRA (Bahrain's National Health Regulatory Authority) or Prometric, and nothing here is the official exam. Every exam rule on this page is summarised from the official pages listed at the foot of the page.
NHRA licensure-examination guide; Prometric NHRA page.
How to use these questions
Read each question and choose an answer before you open "Show the answer". The point is to find out what you would choose under exam conditions, not to recognise the right answer once you have seen it. Then read the reason: a question on the same principle can be worded in many ways, and the principle is what lets you answer it.
| Question | Area | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fundamentals, safety and infection control | What to do about non-blanching redness over the sacrum |
| 2 | Adult medical-surgical nursing | Positioning a breathless patient with heart failure |
| 3 | Perioperative nursing | The first action for a blocked airway in the recovery unit |
| 4 | Maternal-newborn and women's health | The first action for a soft fundus with heavy bleeding after birth |
Question 1: fundamentals, safety and infection control
Question 1 · Fundamentals, safety and infection control
A 79-year-old woman on bed rest has a patch of red skin over her sacrum. The redness does not fade when the nurse presses on it, and the skin is intact. What should the nurse do?
- (A) Reposition her off the sacrum and record a stage 1 pressure injury
- (B) Massage the red area firmly to bring back the blood supply to the skin
- (C) Apply a warm compress to the area every two hours
- (D) Place a ring-shaped cushion under her sacrum to lift the area
Show the answer
Answer: (A) Reposition her off the sacrum and record a stage 1 pressure injury. Non-blanching redness over intact skin is a stage 1 pressure injury, so pressure must be taken off the area and the finding recorded. Massage damages already injured tissue, and ring cushions concentrate pressure on the surrounding skin.
An original ProSyllabus question on general nursing knowledge. Not an NHRA or Prometric question.
Question 2: adult medical-surgical nursing
Question 2 · Adult medical-surgical nursing
A 72-year-old woman with heart failure is breathless when lying down, has crackles at both lung bases and has gained 2 kg in two days. Which position is most appropriate while the nurse reports these findings?
- (A) Lying flat on her back with both legs raised on two pillows
- (B) Lying on her left side with the head of the bed kept flat
- (C) Head-down tilt with both legs raised to increase her venous return
- (D) Sitting upright with her legs lowered over the side of the bed
Show the answer
Answer: (D) Sitting upright with her legs lowered over the side of the bed. Sitting upright lets the diaphragm move freely and lowering the legs reduces venous return to an overloaded heart, which eases breathing in heart failure. Raising the legs or tilting the head down adds to the fluid load on the lungs.
An original ProSyllabus question on general nursing knowledge. Not an NHRA or Prometric question.
Question 3: perioperative nursing
Question 3 · Perioperative nursing
A 58-year-old man arrives in the recovery unit after general anaesthesia. He is drowsy, has snoring respirations and his oxygen saturation is falling. What should the nurse do first?
- (A) Increase the intravenous fluid rate
- (B) Give the prescribed post-operative analgesia
- (C) Open the airway with a jaw thrust manoeuvre
- (D) Record the readings and recheck in 15 minutes
Show the answer
Answer: (C) Open the airway with a jaw thrust manoeuvre. Snoring in a drowsy post-anaesthetic patient means partial airway obstruction, usually by the tongue, so opening the airway comes before anything else (airway first). Fluids, analgesia or simply re-checking do nothing for a blocked airway.
An original ProSyllabus question on general nursing knowledge. Not an NHRA or Prometric question.
Question 4: maternal-newborn and women's health
Question 4 · Maternal-newborn and women's health
A 27-year-old woman gave birth vaginally two hours ago. Her fundus is soft, midline and two finger-breadths above the umbilicus, and her pad is soaked with bright red lochia. What should the nurse do first?
- (A) Massage the fundus until it becomes firm
- (B) Increase the rate of her intravenous fluids
- (C) Ask her to empty her bladder in the toilet
- (D) Recheck the fundus and pad in thirty minutes
Show the answer
Answer: (A) Massage the fundus until it becomes firm. A soft (boggy) fundus with heavy bleeding means uterine atony, the commonest cause of postpartum haemorrhage; fundal massage stimulates contraction and is the first action while help is called. Voiding helps a full bladder, which usually pushes the fundus to one side rather than leaving it boggy and midline.
An original ProSyllabus question on general nursing knowledge. Not an NHRA or Prometric question.
What NHRA publishes about the exam content
In the documents we read, NHRA publishes no blueprint, no topic weighting and no question count for the nursing exam. What it does publish is a list of nine reference books, which it says is "intended as a study guide only", was taken from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties website, and is not the only source: "Exam questions may not necessarily be taken solely from these references." The books cover fundamentals of nursing, basic nursing care, care planning, adult medical-surgical nursing, perioperative care and maternal-newborn nursing. Our study-plan guide lists all nine.
| Area (our grouping of the reference books) | Our practice questions draw on (ProSyllabus) |
|---|---|
| Fundamentals, safety and infection control | The nursing process and priorities, assessment and vital signs, skin and pressure injury, mobility and falls, nutrition, fluids and elimination, hand hygiene, isolation, medication safety, communication |
| Adult medical-surgical nursing | Heart and circulation, breathing and oxygen, stroke and the brain, diabetes and hormones, kidneys, the gut and liver, blood, bones and joints, sepsis, burns, the deteriorating patient |
| Perioperative nursing | Preparing a patient for surgery, the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, the sterile field, positioning, recovery from anaesthesia, complications after surgery |
| Maternal-newborn and women's health | Pregnancy and its danger signs, labour and fetal heart rate patterns, the postpartum period and bleeding, breastfeeding, newborn care |
ProSyllabus practice test: 204 questions across two mocks of 100 and this 4-question sample. These are our counts, not the weighting of the real exam, which NHRA does not publish.
The right-hand column describes our questions, not an official content outline: NHRA lists reference books but publishes no blueprint. Our questions do not cover children's nursing, mental health nursing or nursing management, which the reference list does not name, and none of them turns on a drug dose or a rule that differs from one hospital or country to another.
If you got one wrong
Each question tests a principle rather than a fact to memorise. If you picked a wrong option, write the principle from the explanation in one line, then look for it in the matching reference area: pressure care and the nursing process in a fundamentals text, heart failure in a medical-surgical text, recovery after anaesthesia in a perioperative text, and bleeding after birth in a maternal-newborn text. Then try a fresh question on the same principle a few days later. A principle you can explain in your own words is one you can apply when a question words it differently.
What the real exam is like
| Fact | Real exam (NHRA and Prometric) | ProSyllabus mock |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | NHRA requires it, unless an exemption applies; Prometric delivers it | Independent practice, not made or endorsed by NHRA or Prometric |
| Time | 2½ hours of actual exam time in a 3-hour seating | 2½ hours |
| Questions | Not published | 100 (our choice) |
| Pass mark | 50% for nursing in NHRA's guide; 60% for all Bahrain exams on Prometric's page | Your score is shown out of 100; a practice score does not predict a result |
| Content | No blueprint; nine reference books as a study guide | Four areas, mixed by our own weighting |
From NHRA's licensure-examination guide and reference list and Prometric's NHRA page. For eligibility codes, attempts and accepted Gulf results, see our guide to the exam's pass mark, duration and attempts.
Want the full practice test?
The ProSyllabus NHRA nursing exam practice test has two timed mocks of 100 questions in 2½ hours, your score by area, your time per question and the reason behind every answer. These four questions are the free part; the mocks are paid. Our own questions, not NHRA's or Prometric's, and not the official exam.
Frequently asked questions
Does NHRA publish sample questions for the nursing exam?
Not in the documents we read. NHRA publishes a reference list of nine books and says questions may not come solely from them.
Are these real NHRA exam questions?
No. They are ProSyllabus's own questions on general nursing knowledge, the free sample of our practice test.
How many questions are in the NHRA nursing exam?
NHRA and Prometric do not publish a question count. Prometric gives 2½ hours of actual exam time.
What is the pass mark?
50% for nursing in NHRA's licensure-examination guide; Prometric's NHRA page says 60% for all Bahrain licensure exams.
Which subjects should I practise?
NHRA's reference books cover fundamentals, care planning, adult medical-surgical nursing, perioperative care and maternal-newborn nursing.
More in this series
- NHRA Bahrain nursing exam: pattern, pass mark, attempts
- NHRA nurse eligibility for Indian nurses
- NHRA nurse licence process and fees
- NHRA nurse renewal, CPD, BLS and transfer
- NHRA nursing exam study plan and references
- NHRA Bahrain nursing notice board — official updates
- Gulf nursing licences compared: Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain
- Indian nurses and emigration clearance: the 2025 rules
Sources
- official — NHRA — Bahrain Nursing Licensure Examination References (v1.0)
- official — NHRA — Health Profession Regulation Section
- official — NHRA — Licensure Examination guide (updated)
- official — NHRA — Nursing Professionals Qualification Requirements, 2020 October v2.2 (updated Oct 2022)
- official — Prometric — National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
