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Certified Global Nurse (CGN)
TruMerit’s Certified Global Nurse (CGN) credential offers nurses everywhere a shared framework for meeting global professional nursing standards. When you carry the CGN, your employers and colleagues will know that your applied knowledge and skills are verified against a global benchmark, attesting to your qualifications for delivering quality healthcare.
This credential is intended to provide nurses with greater mobility within the profession and across geopolitical boundaries throughout their career.
The CGN is the world’s first truly global credential for first-level, general nurses. It is available to any qualified nurse to recognize nursing excellence and to enable them to access opportunities for career advancement, regardless of where they choose to live and work.
The cornerstone of the Certified Global Nurse program is the Nurse Qualifying Exam (NQE). Upon verification by TruMerit of their nursing education and licensure/registration, applicants for the CGN will sit for the NQE and will be awarded the credential after passing it. Learn more about the Nurse Qualifying Exam.
Why earn the credential?
- Verify your skills and proficiency on a global scale.
Earning the CGN requires you to demonstrate knowledge and skills specific to nursing, thus validating your expertise to current and prospective employers. Carrying this credential will show that your nursing knowledge and experience have been assessed against a global industry standard with an established competency framework for nursing. Having the CGN credential will position you favorably with global recruiters and employers, opening doors of career opportunity that experience alone may not afford.
- Amplify your professional identity.
On average, prospective employers and recruiters scan through resumes quickly and often do not dig deep enough to discover specialty-specific skills and experience. With the credential after your name, your validated skills will be positioned at the top of your profiles and resume to proudly declare your status as a professional global nurse, ensuring that prospective employers know that you possess this critical and unique set of skills and competencies.
- Support your career mobility.
The CGN is a credential based on a global competency framework validated by subject matter experts worldwide. It tells prospective employers that your first-level, general nursing expertise and experience from your home country will transfer to other countries.
- Demonstrate your commitment to continuing education.
The CGN must be renewed every five years, demonstrating to employers and colleagues your dedication to continuing professional development and excellence as a nurse.
Eligibility for the CGN
CGN certification is for first level, general nurses* who wish to have their applied knowledge and competencies in their field recognized as meeting a global standard. To be eligible to apply, you must meet the following education and license/registration requirements, as verified by TruMerit:
Education
*You must have completed a first-level, general nursing education.
Licenses/Registration
You must hold a current license as a first-level, general nurse or registered nurse (RN) in the country where you practice. (The license requirement is waived if you live and work in a country where authorization to practice is based on a diploma.)
*In most countries, including the United States, a first-level nurse is called a registered nurse or a professional nurse. If you are a second-level nurse in your native country, you cannot sit for the NQE exam. In most countries, second-level nurses are called enrolled nurses, vocational nurses, practical nurses, or nursing assistants.
Steps to earning the CGN credential:
- Step 1: Create a TruMerit Connect account.
- Step 2: Complete your profile.
- Step 3: Purchase CGN certification.
- Step 4: Submit all required forms.
- Step 5: Register to take the Nurse Qualifying Exam (NQE).
- Step 6: Pass the NQE.
Watch a video or read instructions on how to create a TruMerit Connect account here.
Be among the first to become a Certified Global Nurse.
Price: $395 (includes the fee to take the Nurse Qualifying Exam)
The first NQE test window is:
November 10-14, 2025
Application deadline: September 30, 2025
The NQE is delivered at Kryterion testing centers during four annual one-week testing windows. Test dates for 2026 will be announced soon.
Ready to apply for your CGN credential?
About the Nurse Qualifying Exam
The Nurse Qualifying Exam (NQE) is the reinvented version of what had been known for nearly 50 years as the CGFNS Qualifying Exam. Over the course of 2024-25, TruMerit carried out a comprehensive process of modernizing and upgrading the examination to meet the challenges of an evolving profession and broaden its ability to validate the applied knowledge and practice competence of first-level, general nurses worldwide.
The reinvention process was grounded in broad global participation and collaboration from nursing experts, including 73 nursing leaders and subject matter experts from 50 countries, and from across all world regions and income levels, to lend their expertise to creating an exam that would enable nurses and their employers to benchmark their skills against a global standard.
To learn more about the NQE and the knowledge needed to pass it, download the exam handbook from the NQE page. This publication provides comprehensive information on what the NQE is and how to prepare for it, including the exam blueprint, topics covered, and the competency framework used in developing the questions on the exam. The handbook also provides sample questions and answers.
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