OSCE nursing Australia: how the RN exam works
OSCE nursing in Australia means a 10-station practical exam for overseas-qualified registered nurses, and each sitting costs A$4,000. This page explains the format in plain steps. Read the OSCE exam fees in Australia page for costs and timing.
Assess urgency, call the GP using ISBAR and arrange appropriate emergency assistance.
Free · no sign-up · uses your one free station
Open the full station (charts, voice, result letter) →The exam at a glance
| Stations | 10, each 10 minutes: 2 minutes reading and 8 minutes performing. Board page for registered nurses |
|---|---|
| Where | Adelaide or Melbourne. Board page for registered nurses |
| Fee | A$4,000 per sitting. Board fees |
| Sittings in 2025/26 | 3,633, including re-sits. Ahpra annual report |
How a station runs
You read the instructions for 2 minutes outside the room, then go in and have 8 minutes to perform. You must do the task, not only say what you would do. The examiner does not prompt or give feedback.
The person in the room may be an actor patient, a manikin, a carer or a colleague playing another nurse. You may be asked to report your findings. Handover uses ISBAR: Introduction, Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation.
What is tested
The Board's handbook sorts stations into three areas: assessing and planning care, delivering care, and evaluating care. Expect observations, medicines, resuscitation, infection control and pain assessment, plus clear talk with patients and teams. Marking follows the national standards for registered nurses, not state policy.
Practising online
Online practice cannot replace hands-on skills, so ours uses talk-through, choosing actions and filling in charts. Try one station free with no sign-up, or see pricing. New to the format? Read what an OSCE is.
130 original RN OSCE practice stations
Aseptic technique
- Aseptic dressing of an uncomplicated incision
- A leg wound that has changed at home
- Contamination during a clinic dressing
- Pressure wound care with consent concerns
- Responding to a needlestick during clinic care
- Protecting the connection during an IV line change
- An interrupted home wound dressing
- Personal care for a patient with vomiting and diarrhoea
- Collecting a catheter specimen
- An interruption during a procedure
Basic life support
- Gasping collapse in a ward bay
- Collapse in the GP treatment room
- No-shock AED prompt in residential care
- Signs of life during community resuscitation
- AED use after collapse beside a community pool
- Basic life support for a child in a clinic
- A collapse in the dining room
- A collapse beside the treatment trolley
Blood transfusion
- Preparing to start a red cell transfusion
- Rigors and hypotension during red cells
- An identifier mismatch before outreach transfusion
- A patient withdraws consent before transfusion
- Breathlessness during a red cell transfusion
- Preparing red cells for Peter Lawson
- A bedside review during transfusion
- Preparing red cells at the bedside
Documentation & charts
- Correcting an observation entry safely
- Completing a home fluid balance summary
- Documenting symptomatic low blood glucose
- Recording a resident’s declined medicine
- A glucose chart entry that does not match the meter
- Completing a neurological trend record
- A fluid balance total that hides a trend
- Updating an ileostomy care record
- A catheter specimen awaiting dispatch
- Postnatal ward: morning care for Imogen Hart
Focused assessment
- Focused assessment of worsening breathlessness
- Neurovascular concern beneath a new cast
- Sudden facial and arm weakness in a clinic
- Abdominal discomfort during home follow-up
- Neurological assessment after a head strike
- A painful hand after forearm surgery
- A new blister on a foot with reduced sensation
- Lower abdominal discomfort and reduced urine
- Focused breathing assessment in a school-aged child
- A community foot review
- An abdominal review after stoma surgery
- A child after a playground fall
- A catheter review in residential care
Handover and escalation
- Telephone escalation for worsening infection
- Calling from a clinic about sudden breathlessness
- RN handover after a minor head injury
- Shift handover for a resident with acute confusion
- Calling for a child with increasing oxygen needs
- Telephone escalation of a falling neurological score
- Community handover after treated hypoglycaemia
- Residential handover after an unwitnessed fall
- A telephone update after a home visit
- ED handover after wound treatment
- A late-shift residential handover
- Handover for transfer to an inpatient palliative unit
IV fluids
- Checking a maintenance fluid prescription
- Pain and swelling at an infusion site
- New breathlessness during residential IV therapy
- A pump setting that differs from the home order
- A short prescribed infusion in a GP clinic
- Calculating a gravity infusion under an outreach order
- Reviewing Irene's potassium replacement order
- A prescribed infusion on the medical ward
- A gravity infusion in the day clinic
- A fluid review before transfer
Medication administration
- Oral paracetamol with an uncertain dose history
- Mealtime subcutaneous insulin safety check
- Intramuscular vitamin B12 with needle anxiety
- Subcutaneous heparin with a safety pause
- Checking an oral dose on a child medication record
- An S8 tablet and the controlled medicine register
- Methotrexate on a transfer chart
- Morning insulin at a home visit
- First dose of oral amoxicillin at a GP clinic
- A scheduled medicine on the paediatric ward
- An oral medicine at the community clinic
- A medicine round in rehabilitation
- A tablet request in aged care
- A transdermal medicine review
Patient communication
- Interpreter-supported consent for wound care
- A home discharge plan with limited reading confidence
- Family concern about a resident’s meal choice
- Hearing-accessible discharge teaching
- Planning a culturally safe discharge conversation
- An anxious parent while a child awaits review
- Interpreter-supported consent before a dressing
- A resident declines a recommended hospital assessment
- A conversation during palliative care
- A conversation about this morning’s care
- Home care after a skin procedure
- A conversation about a planned admission
Pain management
- Pain and sedation before PRN oxycodone
- Pain assessment while awaiting abdominal review
- Recognising pain in a resident with limited speech
- Persistent pain after amputation at home
- New chest discomfort during a GP visit
- Pain assessment with a child after a burn dressing
- Pain that prevents coughing after surgery
- Discomfort after birth
- Headache in an adolescent
- Pain during a home palliative visit
Risk assessment
- Falls prevention after a near miss
- Pressure prevention with reduced sensation
- Responding to disclosed suicidal intent
- Acute confusion after arrival in emergency
- Mental health safety assessment after a crisis
- Falls assessment during a home medication review
- Pressure damage assessment in darker skin
- A patient pacing in the emergency department
- A resident found on the floor
- A morning review on the surgical ward
Vital signs
- Postoperative observations and urgent escalation
- Fever and rapid breathing in general practice
- New confusion during residential care observations
- Dizziness during a home nursing visit
- A child working harder to breathe
- Reduced intake and observations in a child
- Sweating before breakfast in residential care
- Drowsiness after procedural analgesia
- Rigors during a community oncology visit
- Observations after a classroom episode
- A postnatal review on the ward
- Observations during a home respiratory visit
- A review in the ED waiting area
Common questions
How many stations are in the nursing OSCE in Australia?
There are 10 stations. Each lasts 10 minutes, made up of 2 minutes reading and 8 minutes performing.
Where is the nursing OSCE held?
In Adelaide or Melbourne. It can only be sat in Australia.
How much does the nursing OSCE cost?
A$4,000 per sitting. A retake means paying again.
Practise every day until it feels routine.
One pass opens every exam on the site, including the RN OSCE. From US$25 for 7 days, with no automatic renewal.
See passesSources
- Nursing and Midwifery Board: information for registered nurses, with the candidate handbook
- Nursing and Midwifery Board: OSCE
- Nursing and Midwifery Board: fees
- Ahpra annual report 2025/26: health workforce
Checked 2026-11-06. Fees and rules change, so confirm them with the regulator before you book.