Occupational English for Further Study Preparation(Nursing)

Excellent pathway opportunities are here!

The Occupational English Test (OET) is administered by the OET centre up to ten times a year.

The Test assesses the language profiency as it is used in medical and health professions.

The Nursing Council of New Zealand requires a candidate to achieve a ‘B’ pass in all four skills areas (reading, writing, listening and speaking) in order to gain nursing registration in New Zealand along with other requirements.  With its content all centred on medical, nursing and health-related English, we believe that it is more relevant to the students and they indicate that they are much more comfortable with the material.

About OET

A medical/health context which is relevant to work as a medical professional.

The reading and listening sub-tests are general (all medical professionals complete the same test).

The writing and speaking sub-tests are profession specific (e.g. nurses will take tests related to nursing)

• The OET "B" in each band do not need to be achieved in a single sitting of the test.

You may choose to sit the test more than once and gain the necessary scores over a series of tests.

The total of "B" in each band must be achieved within 12 months of first sitting the test.

• The English Language Assessment must be less than two years old at the time  of application.

Internationally qualified nurses applying for registration in New Zealand

The applicant is assessed as meeting New Zealand educational standards.

Your nursing qualification must be deemed to be equivalent to Level Seven as determined by  New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

Student must be a registered nurse with a four- year nursing degree, have had at least 450 hours of clinical experience post- registration in the previous 12 months

The theoretical component of the degree or diploma provides a minimum of three years’ full time nursing or nursing related study which includes a minimum of 1100 clinical or practice hours.

The remaining theoretical component of the degree must include the following content:

• professional nursing practice

• bioscience, social and behavioural science

• health systems and policy

• nursing assessment and practice decision making

• therapeutic communication skills

• pharmacology

• pathophysiology, genetics and disease states

• health promotion

• ethics and law

• research and evidence based practice

• organisational and supervisor skills and leadership

• information technology

Practice content must include:

• primary health care which includes:

- maternal and infant health

- child, adolescent and family health

- adult health

- elderly health

• medical and surgical nursing

• disability, mental health recovery and rehabilitational/continuing care

• mental health nursing