DOH Nursing Exam 2026: 150 MCQs, 3 Hours, AED 540 and the Pass Mark

Nurses who want to work in Abu Dhabi are licensed by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH), the regulator previously known as the Health Authority – Abu Dhabi (HAAD) — which is why the exam is still widely searched as the "HAAD exam". Most of what is written about it online is copied from coaching pages, and much of it is wrong. DOH itself does publish the essentials, though not on a page anyone would find: they are in the Licensing Service Catalogue attached to DOH Circular 151 of 2024. This guide sets out exactly what that document and DOH's other official pages say about the exam, and marks clearly what DOH does not publish.

DOH Circular 151/2024 — Licensing Service Catalogue, nurses page and examination step.

DOH decides which exam you sit from the title you apply for. For four nursing and midwifery titles the exam is a computer-based test (CBT) of multiple-choice questions, delivered by Pearson VUE. The nurses page of DOH's service catalogue gives the question count, duration and fee for each:

The same page lists titles that are assessed by an oral exam instead, for AED 50: Nurse Practitioner, Certified Anesthesia Nurse, Community Nurse, Critical Care Nurse, Homecare Nurse, Pediatric Nurse, Mental Nurse, Neonatal Nurse and Assistant Midwife. DOH's examination step gives oral and OSCE exams 45 to 60 minutes, and the PQR says an oral exam has at least five scenarios or questions. Some titles have "an additional component, which will be stated once the credentials are approved", so the TAMM screen after credentialing is the final word on your own exam.

Pearson VUE lists DOH exams under a program still called "HAAD". On 25 September 2026 its public exam list (a page that loads only in a browser; we read it there) showed these nursing and midwifery exams — two codes each for the Registered Nurse, Practical/Assistant Nurse and School Nurse exams:

Two practical consequences follow. First, because nobody outside DOH knows the cut score, the only safe target in practice is a comfortable margin: aim for consistently high scores in timed mocks rather than a number you read online. Second, because a fail is reported without a score, you will not learn which area let you down. Keep your own record of which topics felt weak straight after the exam — it is the only feedback you will get.

The result appears on TAMM, Abu Dhabi's government services portal, where the licence application lives — not on Pearson VUE. DOH's FAQ gives the path: in the Health circle, open "Licenses for Health Professionals", find your application (its number starts with HPREG or HPACT), choose View, then Additional Details, and look on page 3 or 4. A pass moves the application on to linking with an employer and security clearance; a fail lets you book again inside the same six-month window, with no waiting period (see the attempts guide in this series).

Both CBTs give you exactly the same pace — 180 minutes for 150 questions, 120 for 100 — so a timed mock should train 72 seconds a question. Use the check below during a practice set to see whether you are ahead or behind.

DOH gives no content outline, so any list of exam topics is an inference. The best official guide to what DOH expects each title to do is its Scope of Practice – Nursing (2022). It is specific about the line between the two main titles: Assistant Nurses give care "as delegated and supervised by the registered nurse" and "are not expected to have a role in preparation, administration or documentation of medications", while Registered Nurses assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate care — including inserting and managing intravenous and urinary catheters, recognising abnormal vital signs and performing basic life support. On our reading, questions for the RN exam will lean on that full nursing-process role, and the AN exam on safe basic care, observation and reporting. The preparation guide in this series turns that into a study plan.