How to Gain Admission into Schools of Nursing in Nigeria

How to Gain Admission into Schools of Nursing in Nigeria : The following is the list of the types of schools of Nursing in Nigeria;

1. How to get admission into schools of nursing without the prerequisites
2. Requirements to get admission into schools of nursing
3. How to apply for school of nursing in Nigeria
4. Nursing school of nursing application deadlines for the year
5. High school requirements for schools and colleges of nursing
6. When to apply to schools of nursing

1. Getting into nursing school mostly depends on your O-level results.

In order to get into universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, you need both JAMB and your O-level results. However, you only need your SSCE results (from WAEC, NECO, GCE, or NABTEB) to get into a school or college of nursing.

But for a few polytechnics and nursing colleges that offer ND/HND in nursing, you will need to get the JAMB UTME form, take it, pass it, and meet the national cut-off mark or the school’s cut-off mark before you can apply for admission.

So, you should choose this kind of nursing school in the UTME. And if you didn’t do that when you signed up for the UTME, you can still change your school.

Having an O’level result as a requirement, on the other hand, doesn’t mean you have to get at least credits in the 9 or 8 subjects. The only subjects you need to show on your results are English, math, chemistry, biology, and physics. You can pass all five subjects with just one WAEC, NECO, GCE, or NABTEB. The subjects can also come from taking the same or different tests twice.

Also, the lowest grade you can get in these five subjects is a C6. But if you get As and Bs in all five of your classes, you might have an edge over people with lower grades. But getting into nursing school shouldn’t be hard if you don’t have any As or Bs. At least the credits look good!

2. Age Requirement for school of Nursing

To get into the School of Nursing, you have to be a certain age.

No one under the age of 18 is allowed to take a course in nursing.

As you should know, to become a nurse in Nigeria, you need to be both physically and emotionally grown up.

In Nigeria, you have to be at least sixteen (16) years old to go to any School of Nursing.

But for some schools, you have to be eighteen (18) years old.

Also, some nursing schools have age limits, like sixty (60) years old.

Let me know in the comments if you don’t know what the age requirement is for the nursing school you want to get into.

3. Pregnancy Regulation

Pregnancy is an admission requirement for female students to study at the School of Nursing.

Pregnancy at the time of admission is against the policies of the School of Nursing in Nigeria.

I know you are wondering why the discrimination against pregnant students.

It is not discrimination but a policy that is for your good.

At the School of Nursing, students participate in practical sessions at the hospital.

It would be a great danger for pregnant women to attend to patients with all sorts of infectious diseases.

Also, a pregnant woman cannot pull through the academic stress at nursing school.

How to Gain Admission into Schools of Nursing

4. No Limitation to Male and Female Applicants

Having answered a question about this in my post, “Can a Man Be a Nurse or a Woman Doctor in Nigeria?“, I can reemphasize here that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a girl or a boy, you have an equal chance of being admitted by the school or college of nursing.

Although some schools may have preferences for more females than males, that doesn’t mean they won’t admit male applicants if they meet the requirements.

Processes for applying to and getting into nursing schools

Now that we’ve talked about the requirements, let’s get into the step-by-step process of applying to and getting into nursing schools and colleges in Nigeria.

How to Gain Admission into Schools of Nursing

1. Get the registration form.

The first step in getting into a nursing school is to get an application form from the school you want to go to. There is no one date that all schools will start selling their forms or stop selling them. Most of the time, application forms are still out from March until around August every year.

In other words, each nursing school will sell its forms during these months. You have to keep up with their news to find out who opens applications during that time.

But if the proposed nursing school only offers ND/HND in nursing and not Registered Nursing (RN), you will need to get the year’s JAMB form, even if you don’t list the school as one of your JAMB choices.

For schools and colleges of nursing that ask for UTME, you need proof that you got it, took it, and scored high enough to meet the cut-off marks, which are set by the government.

Most nursing schools have their own websites where potential students can buy or get their application forms.

Here, make sure you’re dealing with their official websites to avoid getting ripped off by scammers who hang out in online forums, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram groups. Use the services of a reliable and professional cafe near you.

Most of the time, the application fee is paid using online payment platforms on their websites. Don’t send money to an agent or a personal account.

When you fill out the online form, you will need to give all of your personal information, education information, and O-level subjects and grades.

After you send in your application, you should get a printout with your application number and sometimes the date of the exam, if they don’t ask you to print that later.

2. Prepare For and Attend the Entrance Exams

Almost no nursing school will let people in without an entrance exam, whether it’s a paper-and-pencil test (like at the School of Nursing Asubiaro Osogbo) or a computer-based test (like at the School of Nursing Ido Ekiti).

You will need to study for your tests. Of course, you should ask questions that are more about the real world than about theory. Most of the time, questions are set in English, math, biology, chemistry, and physics. There will be times when you have to write a general paper about something related to health. For example, the past questions and answers for the Osun State School of Nursing, Asubiaro, Osogbo, include the 5 subjects as well as general papers.

The next step in the admissions process will depend on how you did on your exam. For example, some schools will set the cutoff at 50% or above, while others will go higher.

At this point, the only thing that matters is getting the marks you need to move on to the interview or second test (e.g School of Nursing Osogbo usually conducts two sets of entrance exams).

3. Get Set For and Attend the Interview

Before the final list is made, all nursing schools will do interviews, which are like tests.

Even though the interview process is different at each nursing school, you should still expect to be judged on how you dress, how well you speak, how interactive you are, and how well you can answer direct questions about Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and health-related current events.

Depending on how well you do at this stage, you may or may not be admitted to the school in the long run.

Some schools grade the interview separately from the test score, while others add the interview score to the test score to get the final score or performance.

Overall, if you get the required score or point, you should be on the school’s list of top students.

School of Nursing Admission is Beyond Passing the Test and Interview?

Some applicants to nursing schools had told me about their experiences when they were trying to get in.

After a number of setbacks, they came to the conclusion that getting into nursing school takes more than just meeting the requirements, passing the test, and going on interviews. They thought it was important to know people.

Is it true that you have to have “connections” to get into nursing school?

Yes and no are the answers to the question above.

There will be something called a “merit list” for each school. This list will have the names of students who did so well on their tests and interviews that they met or beat the cut-off mark that the management had set. There is no doubt that these applicants will be accepted.

They will be let in based on how well they do, even if the principal, a state governor, a director, minister, or commissioner of health doesn’t know them.

But candidates who did about average may need help from inside the company. This is true not only for nursing schools and colleges, but also for universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. If you’re an average student, you may need help from within to get in.

As long as a nursing school makes its test scores and interview scores public in order to accept students, they won’t be able to hide if they turn down good candidates.

But if a school’s past shows that they aren’t honest about their admissions process, they can still turn you down even if you score 100% on both the test and the interview. This group of nursing schools, which are often run by the government, can be hard to get into.

The fact that nursing schools are given quotas is another reason why most qualified applicants are turned away.

There is a cap of 99 students per year that nursing schools can take in. Some places, on the other hand, don’t have the resources to take in and train that many people.

So, even if they get in, they find ways to limit the number of people who get in. This is why some of them still use exams to weed out students, even after they’ve been accepted.