What is the Age Limit for the Schools of Nursing

Age limit for Nursing admissions 

Talking of the school of Nursing age limit for admissions, one can easily mistake the colleges' admission policies on age for other institutions. The age requirement for schools/colleges of Nursing admission is different from that of other institutions such as universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and Initiative enterprise institutes.

While there is a minimum age for other conventional institutions, those sets of schools have no maximum age for their admissions. As such, the minimum age for other institutions is 16 years on the first/last day of October according to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and a few other institutions. 

And as noted, it doesn't matter your age on admission if you're above 16 while seeking admission into any other institutions.

However, the schools of Nursing are a bit different. They have both the minimum and maximum age limits for their admissions. While we have a general minimum age, we also have a few of them with variances. Let's look into the age limit acceptable by various schools of Nursing in Nigeria.

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General Minimum Age Requirements For Schools and Colleges of Nursing

According to the Nursing & Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), the acceptable Minimum Age range for admission into Basic Nursing and Basic Midwifery Training programme is 16. 

This is the exact minimum age also by JAMB for universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. But unlike the JAMB minimum age requirements, the council didn't state a particular month for the age.

In order words, while JAMB and other institutions insist on candidates being 16, at least, at the time of entry or admission processing, the Nursing & Midwifery Council of  Nigeria doesn't specify any month.

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Specific Minimum Age By Individual Schools of Nursing

Under normal circumstances, every school of Nursing should comply with the minimum age stated by the Nursing & Midwifery Council of Nigeria. However, the reverse is still the case (at least at the time of this post).

A few schools of Nursing had required more than 16 years in their entrance application adverts. Below are a few to check.

1. University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City (18 years)
2. FCT School of Nursing Gwagwalada (17 years)
3. The University of Lagos, College of Medicine, and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH)  (17years)
4. Kwara State College of Nursing, Oke Ode (17.5 years)
5. University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Nursing (17 years)
6. Kaduna State College of Nursing Kafanchan (17 years)
7. School of Nursing, Sacred Heart Hospital, Lantoro, Abeokuta (17 years) 
8. Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) School Of Nursing (17.5 years)
9. Adamawa State College Of Nursing And Midwifery Yola (17.5 years)
10. Nigerian Army College of Nursing, Yaba Lagos State (17 years)
11. Oyo State College Of Midwifery Eleyele Ibadan (17 years)
12. Lagos State College of Nursing Igando, Lagos State (17 years)

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Some schools of Nursing May Be Silent about the Minimum Admission Age

In this case, it's safer to think that they strictly comply with the requirement stated by the NMCN. Checking the following schools of Nursing, their adverts do not state any age requirement.

1. Shehu Sule College of Nursing and Midwifery Damaturu 
2. Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital School of Nursing
3. Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi 
4. Bowen School of Nursing University Teaching Hospital Ogbomoso 
5. Ogun State School Of Nursing And Midwifery Complex Idi-aba, Abeokuta
6. School Of Nursing - Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido, Ekiti State
7. Katsina State College of Nursing and Midwifery Kasimu Kofar Bai
8. Cross River State School Of Nursing (S.O.N.), Calabar
9. Benue State School of Nursing Makurdi

Whereas, the following schools of Nursing state the corresponding age with that of NMCN.

1. University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital School of Nursing (16 years)
2. Osun State School of Nursing Asubiaro Osogbo (16 years) 

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Maximum Age limit for the Schools/Colleges of Nursing

It's rare to see schools of nursing adverts stating the maximum age a prospective applicant must not be before being admitted. As earlier detailed, the minimum age can be obvious in several adverts and where they're silent it's 16. Does this mean no maximum age requirements for schools/colleges of Nursing admissions?

Some schools still state the age range they want if you must apply for their Basic or General Nursing course. Below is the list of such colleges of Nursing being plain about the maximum age of the applicants.

1. University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Nursing (33 years)
2. Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) School Of Nursing (26 years)
3. Nigerian Army College of Nursing, Yaba Lagos State (25 years)

And since the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria doesn't announce any maximum age for the applicants chasing the general Nursing programme, it's safe to conclude that where a school of Nursing doesn't announce the maximum age or the age rage wanted, it means it's not particular about any age limit other than 16 as the minimum and with no maximum.

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Minimum and Maximum Age for the Post Basic and Post-Graduate Courses

Apart from the general or basic Nursing programme, schools of Nursing run a few other courses including:

1. the post-basic or general nursing programmes
2. post-gradauate programmes
3. certificate courses etc

Here, the minimum age is still fixed at 16 years or sometimes 18. There is no specific maximum age for these kinds of courses as they're meant for the mature and probably practising nurses.

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