1.3 Eligibility, Registration, Results, Reviews, Resits & NCJ Licensure

Eligibility, Registration, Results, Reviews, Resits and NCJ Licensure

Administrative questions are easy marks if you know the official rules, and they matter when you plan your sitting. This section separates what the CXC RENR Preparation Guide says from what the Nursing Council of Jamaica (NCJ) publishes. Where neither source publishes a value, such as the Jamaican RENR sitting fee or the pass mark, this guide says so rather than guessing.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the RENR you must have:

1. successfully completed a basic nursing education programme of at least three years at a recognized educational institution;
2. approval from the educational institution; and
3. registration and licensing by a General Nursing Council, which in Jamaica is the NCJ.

The NCJ sets the minimum entry qualifications for nursing and midwifery schools. General nursing and midwifery require five subjects at CSEC General Proficiency grades I–III or GCE O'Level grades A–C. Three are compulsory: English Language (or CAPE Communication Studies), a science (Biology or Human and Social Biology) and Mathematics. The school, not the candidate alone, confirms that the programme is complete.

How Approval and Registration Work

Ask for special accommodations during registration, or at least four months before the examination date. The Preparation Guide tells candidates to contact their own council for territory-specific requirements. The current NCJ pages reviewed for this guide do not publish the Jamaican RENR sitting fee, so get the fee and deadline from the NCJ or your school.

After the Examination

Results

• Results are issued by your local council about one month after the examination.
• Official results are available only through your council. CXC does not release results to candidates, so do not call CXC.
• The pass mark is not published in the Preparation Guide or on the NCJ pages reviewed.

If You Are Unsuccessful

You receive a Candidate Performance Report (CPR) from the council. It is an individual document showing your performance in each domain. Use it to target your study for the resit. It does not return your answer sheet or the items you got wrong.

Questions and Reviews

• Questions about your results must be put in writing to the Registrar/Secretary within 14 days of receiving them.
• Your responses are reviewed by an external, independent, qualified educator or practitioner.
• The review can take up to four weeks, after which the council tells you the outcome.
• A fee is charged for the query process; your council sets the amount.

Resitting

• If you fail, you are entitled to two chances to rewrite the examination.
• Register for the resit with your council no later than two months before the next scheduled examination. The council decides the resit fee.
• If your resit permit has not arrived one month before the examination, contact your council.

Licensure With the NCJ

After you pass and register, you need a current licence to practise. The NCJ checklist for nurses and midwives trained abroad (2026) states that:

• licences are valid for two years;
• renewal requires 30 continuing education (CE) hours: 25 nursing/midwifery hours and 5 non-nursing hours; and
• holders of more than one licence (for example, RN and RM) need additional CE hours.

The NCJ Revised Fee Structure, effective 2 April 2026, lists these amounts (and notes that fees may change without notice):

The CARICOM and non-CARICOM fees apply to nurses trained abroad who want to register in Jamaica. They are not a fee schedule for local graduates sitting the RENR.

What a Nurse Trained Abroad Submits to the NCJ

The checklist requires:

• an application letter to the Registrar and a detailed CV;
• certified copies of the birth certificate (and marriage certificate, if applicable), current licences with expiry dates, and nursing/midwifery certificates;
• two certified identical passport-size photographs (about 35 × 45 mm);
• an official transcript sent directly by the training institution, translated by an authorised agency if not in English;
• two current professional references sent directly by the referees, preferably from nursing or midwifery supervisors;
• the processing fee; and
• a Jamaican Tax Registration Number (TRN).

The registration fee is paid only after the Council authorises it in its approval letter. All fees are non-refundable, and incomplete applications are not processed.