MOH UAE Nurse Eligibility: GNM, B.Sc and the 2025 PQR Rules

Every UAE health authority — MOHAP, DHA, DOH and Sharjah — decides nursing eligibility from one document: the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements (PQR), 3rd version, April 2025. Its nursing table is short, and it changed two things that matter to Indian nurses. A Registered Nurse needs a bachelor's degree in nursing, and no longer needs any experience. The PQR never mentions GNM, Post-Basic B.Sc or the Indian Nursing Council by name, so the mappings below are our reading of its wording — with MOHAP's own 2016 letter as support where it exists.

PQR, 3rd version, April 2025, sections 1.7, 13.1 and 14.

The GNM point deserves emphasis because so many sites say "B.Sc or GNM" for a registered-nurse post. In June 2016 MOHAP wrote to the Indian Embassy that under its 2014 rules the minimum for a registered nurse was a 3½-year diploma in nursing and midwifery, and diplomas of 18 months to 3 years were "to be licensed as assistant nurses only". The 2025 PQR is stricter still: the RN row now asks for a bachelor's degree. On the text, a GNM without a bachelor's points to Assistant Nurse. A nurse licensed as an assistant nurse who holds a nursing bachelor's may apply for a title upgrade if the assistant-nurse experience has not passed five years (13.1.14).

The April 2025 PQR says "No experience required" for both Registered Nurse and Assistant Nurse. MOHAP's December 2024 licence page still said "Applicant must have at least two years of experience"; its January 2026 successor no longer lists that condition. MOHAP's FAQ adds that the six-month training once required of new graduates "is no longer required if less than two years have elapsed since their graduation date" — graduates can take the evaluation exam directly within two years of graduating. Experience still counts for how it is measured: from the date of the professional licence in the country of practice, salaried or contractual hands-on clinical work only, with the PQR's definitions setting the minimum acceptable part-time experience at 400 hours a year; teaching, volunteering and observership do not count.

One caution: MOHAP's own pages do not agree with each other. Its November 2025 evaluation page says there should be no gap "for more than three years", in line with the PQR; its January 2026 licensing page says "more than 2 years", with training details acceptable "as per PQR" for longer gaps. If your gap is between two and three years, expect questions and have proof of any recent practice or training ready. Exam exemption, where it would otherwise apply, is lost beyond a 3-year gap (21.4).

Three checks sit alongside the qualification rules. You need a valid licence or registration in your home country and/or the country of your last employment (13.1.8) — for an Indian nurse, the state nursing council registration. You need a Good Standing Certificate from the regulator of the country or countries of last employment, not older than six months when you apply. And your documents are verified with the issuing institutions (primary source verification, through DataFlow for MOHAP). Honorary, correspondence and distance-learning qualifications, and "equivalency" certificates, are not counted at all.