New OSCE stations came into use this year

The NMC replenishes the Test of Competence, which means stations are retired and new ones brought in, and 2026 has had two rounds of it. If you are booking an OSCE now, or going back for another attempt, the station you rehearsed from an old document may not be the station you get.

Adult nursing went first. The NMC announced in January that candidates sitting for the first time six weeks from Monday 12 January 2026, which meant exams starting on Monday 23 February 2026, might meet any of eight new stations. There is a new scenario on suspected deep vein thrombosis. There are two new skills stations, anti-embolism stockings and a pre-operative check. There are two new professional values stations, one on a deteriorating patient and one on a patient's private details. And there are three new evidence based practice stations, on cholesterol and coffee, on honey and propolis as a treatment for herpes simplex, and on osteoporosis and exercise.

The other fields followed in the spring. Candidates sitting for the first time six weeks from Monday 2 March 2026, which meant exams starting on Monday 13 April 2026, might meet new stations in children's nursing, mental health nursing and midwifery. Children's nursing gained a fever scenario, an evidence based practice station on communicating with colleagues and a professional values station on recognising professional burnout. Mental health nursing gained an anxiety scenario. Midwifery gained a neonatal assessment skill and an evidence based practice station on smoking and pregnancy.

The six weeks in both of those announcements is the part worth remembering, because it is a promise about notice. New stations were published before anyone could be examined on them, and the gap was six weeks on both occasions this year. So the set of stations you could face is knowable rather than a surprise, and it is published in the same place as the marking criteria and the mock OSCE.

Which brings up what candidates most often get wrong about preparation materials. They go stale. The OSCE supporting documents were updated in April 2026 and the preparation page itself was updated in August. If you downloaded a marking criteria document or a mock OSCE when you first applied, it may describe a station that has since been replaced or a timing that has since moved. Timings do move. Fluid balance went from twelve minutes to fourteen and the midstream specimen and urinalysis station went from eight minutes to twelve in a 2024 revision, and insulin moved from syringes to pens in adult and children's nursing in January 2025. Download the current version before you revise from it, and check the date on the front page against the one on the NMC's site.

What has not changed is the shape. It is still ten stations. Four are scenario stations on one patient, taking you through assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. Four are skills stations, in two pairs, performed on manikins and equipment. Two are written, one on professional values and one on evidence based practice. Every station is passed or failed on its own and all ten have to be passed. New content inside that structure does not change how you prepare for it, which is the reassuring half of this.

Our own OSCE pages describe the station types rather than reproducing the NMC's current list, because the list changes and a page that copies it will be wrong within months. The scenarios we simulate are ours, written to the published test specification, and the four skills stations are not simulated here at all, because nobody can rehearse aseptic technique by typing.