q. who will administer the cgfns exam？
a. the national educational examinations authority （neea）， an agency of the ministry of education， will conduct the cgfns qualifying examination for nurses in beijing， people‘s republic of china， on july 9， 2003. this will be the first time that the cgfns qualifying exam has been offered in china， excluding hong kong. neea is the sole authority authorized by cgfns to conduct the exam in china.
q. when and where will the exam be held？
a. announcements about the time of the exam and location of the exam site（s）
will be made by neea on its website，
q. does cgfns recommend that applicants use a preparation course for the examination？
a. cgfns does not require that applicants who want to sit for the cgfns exam must have first taken a preparation course. cgfns is aware that many organizations are offering preparation courses for the cgfns qualifying exam. some of these organizations may claim that they have been authorized by cgfns to offer this preparation course， or that they represent cgfns or neea. cgfns has authorized no individual or organization to conduct preparation courses for the qualifying exam. neea is cgfns‘ only representative in china. neea has authorized no individual or organization or school to represent it or to conduct preparation courses for the qualifying exam in china. any organization or school which conducts preparation courses for this exam is not authorized to do so by either cgfns or neea.
q. who is eligible to sit for the qualifying exam？ （請特別注意這段）
a. a nurse is eligible to sit for the qualifying exam is he or she is a first-level， general （registered） nurse. what this means is that the applicant‘s nursing education must have been completed separate from secondary school education and that the nursing education must have included sufficient hours of both clinical and theory in all four areas of nursing. those areas include medical/surgical nursing， maternal/infant nursing （obstetrics） excluding gynecology， care of children （pediatrics）， and psychiatric/mental health nursing excluding neurology. if an applicant’s nursing education lacks one of the four areas of nursing， he or she must complete a nursing course in that area from a government approved nursing school before he or she will be authorized to sit for the cgfns exam.
if an applicant‘s nursing education and secondary school education were not separate but were combined， the nurse/applicant is not eligible for the qualifying exam and will not be approved to sit for the exam unless the nurse is able to demonstrate one of two things： 1） that the nurse has subsequently completed a full secondary education separate from the nursing education； or 2） that he or she has passed an examination certifying that he or she has completed the equivalent of a secondary school education. （in the united states， this test is known as the general educational development test ， or “ged.” a person who passes the ged test receives a ged certificate demonstrating that he or she has attained the equivalent of a secondary school education.）
if an applicant‘s nursing education and secondary school education were not separate but were combined， and if the nurse/applicant is unable to demonstrate one of the two requirements listed above， the applicant will not be approved to sit for the qualifying exam.
cgfns suggests that applicants who have questions about their eligibility should contact cgfns before submitting their application and paying the application fee， to seek guidance about whether they are eligible.