ESIC Staff Nurse Exam Pattern, Eligibility, Important Dates

There is no Staff Nurse paper. NORCET runs in two computer-based stages:

Each section locks when its time runs out, in both stages, and you can't go back to it.

Age: up to 30 years. ESIC employees and government servants get five years more. On top of that: five years for SC and ST, three for OBC, and ten for persons with benchmark disability, up to a ceiling of 56.

Under the regulations UPSC may relax the qualifications for otherwise well-qualified candidates, and the experience requirement for SC and ST candidates where too few experienced candidates are likely. Probation is two years.

1. Apply to AIIMS on aiimsexams.ac.in in a cycle ESIC has joined. If you already have a One Time Registration ID from an earlier AIIMS exam, use it.
2. NORCET Preliminary. Qualifying only.
3. Shortlist of five times the seats in each category for the Main. Qualifying the Preliminary does not guarantee a call.
4. NORCET Main. This alone decides merit.
5. Choices and seat allocation, normally one round, with no waiting list.
6. Document verification at an ESIC Regional Office.
7. Appointment, subject to character and antecedent checks, biometric verification after joining, and two years' probation.

There is no interview. The regulations require UPSC consultation for this recruitment, which is why older ESIC advertisements may mention UPSC instead of AIIMS.

You don't apply to ESIC. Applications go to AIIMS, online at aiimsexams.ac.in, under the open NORCET cycle.

The fee is not refunded, except to SC and ST candidates who actually sit the exam. If you have ever registered for an AIIMS exam under One Time Registration, apply with that same ID; a new account can cancel your candidature. Your category can't be changed after paying, and the notice names SC or ST to UR, OBC or EWS as a change it will not correct.

AIIMS runs NORCET for its own institutes and for other central bodies. ESIC joins the cycles in which it has posts to fill, and you choose organisations after the Main result.

ESIC's posts are split by region, which decides where the result is declared, where verification happens and where you are posted. Under NORCET-09, for example, AIIMS declared a separate result for the ESIC Gujarat Region and verification was at the Ahmedabad Regional Office.

ESIC splits the post 80:20 between female and male candidates. NORCET-11's 523 posts divided as follows:

Twenty of the 523 are for persons with benchmark disability, counted within the total. Numbers may change with actual requirement, and an unfilled PwBD vacancy is carried forward to the next year.

NORCET-11, from the NORCET-11 notice (No. 103/2026, 24 July 2026):

ESIC's 523 posts in that cycle compare with 219 in NORCET-10 six months earlier. NORCET is planned twice a year, with no fixed month, so watch aiimsexams.ac.in and the ESIC recruitments page.

The Preliminary line is a percentile, so it can't be known in advance; the Main line is fixed marks. Main ties are broken, from NORCET-11, by fewer wrong answers, then the Preliminary score, then Preliminary wrong answers, then age (older first), then alphabetical order. NORCET-10 put age first.

ESIC publishes no closing marks. What it does publish after each cycle is a Regional Office notice naming the candidates called for document verification.

Search for NORCET, not "ESIC Staff Nurse". The old name mostly turns up coaching material, not the notices.

• Prepare for the Main from the start. It comes about three weeks after the Preliminary, is all nursing, and is the only paper that counts.
• Practise case scenarios. AIIMS says the Main focuses on case-scenario questions testing nursing skills, which is different from recall.
• Rehearse the section timers: about 54 seconds a question in the Preliminary and 67 in the Main. A question marked for review counts as unanswered unless you also save it.
• Diploma holders: your year of experience counts only from after the course, the result and nursing council registration. The certificate must state the bed count, come from the head of the organisation or department, and give duration and pay.

• AIIMS Examination Section, where NORCET is advertised and applied for
• NORCET-11 notice for ESIC
• ESIC recruitments listing, including each cycle's NORCET notice
• ESIC Recruitment Regulations, including the 2020 nursing cadre regulations
• Indian Nursing Council, recognised nursing programmes

Is there an ESIC Staff Nurse recruitment?

No. The post was renamed Nursing Officer by ESIC's 2020 Recruitment Regulations, and ESIC lists nothing under the old name.

What should I apply for instead?

Nursing Officer, through AIIMS NORCET, on aiimsexams.ac.in.

Is Nursing Officer the same grade as the old Staff Nurse?

Yes: Group B, Pay Level 7, ₹44,900 to ₹1,42,400.

What happened to Nursing Sister?

It became Senior Nursing Officer, Pay Level 8, filled only by promotion from Nursing Officer after two years' regular service plus training at an ESIC institute.

Can I still apply with a GNM diploma?

Yes, with one year's experience in a hospital of at least fifty beds after qualifying, and State Nursing Council registration.

Is there an interview?

No.