Registered General Nurse (RGN)

NMBI's register has 12 divisions, and NMBI says you may use the abbreviated letters for a division only if you are registered in it. The General Nurses Division gives the title Registered General Nurse, RGN. Other divisions include Registered Midwife (RM), Registered Children's Nurse (RCN), Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN), Registered Nurse Intellectual Disability (RNID), Registered Public Health Nurse (RPHN) and Registered Advanced Nurse Practitioner (RANP).

Most internationally trained adult or general nurses apply to this division. In job adverts, RGN means a nurse who holds, or can get, NMBI registration in the General Nurses Division. If you also qualify in another field, such as midwifery, you can add a division later; NMBI charges €200 for overseas recognition of an additional division and €80 to register it.

1. Create a MyNMBI account and apply for overseas recognition, uploading certified documents, your CCPS from every jurisdiction, and forms completed by your college and employers. The fee is €350.
2. NMBI assesses your training. Most non-EU applicants receive an NMBI decision letter requiring a compensation measure.
3. As a general nurse you choose the RCSI aptitude test or a period of adaptation in an approved Irish hospital.
4. After recognition, apply for registration with evidence of English and a fit and proper declaration. The fee is €145.
5. Once registered, you appear on the register with your PIN and can use the title RGN.

NMBI says that, including compensation measures, recognition and registration take about 18 months on average. Missing documents are the main cause of delay: an application without all the required documents and forms cannot progress and may be closed.

NMBI accepts three pathways: training completed in an NMBI-recognised majority English-speaking country; registration and practice in such a country for three of the last five years; or IELTS Academic or OET at NMBI's minimum scores.

On the HSE consolidated scales from 1 June 2026, a nurse in an adaptation placement or awaiting registration is paid €33,370, and a registered staff nurse €38,166 rising to €56,592 including long service increments. Because the scales include grades for nurses in adaptation, some employers recruit you before you are registered. DETE accepts, for a Critical Skills Employment Permit, a nursing degree or diploma that NMBI accepts as sufficient for registration.

• Annual renewal. Pay the €100 retention fee each year or you are listed for removal.
• Professional competence. NMBI's scheme starts in January 2027, with the first audits in 2030.
• Applying to the wrong division. A children's nursing qualification belongs in the Children's Nurses Division, which offers adaptation only, not the aptitude test.
• Using the title too early. You are not an RGN until NMBI registers you.
• Extended roles. Prescribing or advanced practice needs registration in a further division, such as Registered Nurse Prescriber (RNP).

See our guide for nurses in Ireland.