IELTS exam band score is an important qualifying requirement for immigration purpose. Nurses from other nations should meet the minimum IELTS score for immigrating to Australia, UK, New Zealand and Canada. Majority of nurses migrating to these nations are from India, Pakistan, Philippines and China. Increasing the minimum IELTS score band requirement in Academic section from 6.5 to 7 in all 4 sections has made life miserable for many skilled immigration aspirants from these Asian nations.

The nursing council has increased the IELTS band score to 7 to ensure that nurses with good English language communication works in their hospitals. As per the nursing council, the main part of nursing job is proper communication with the patient and doctors. So increasing the minimum equipment of IELTS will improve the patient care and relationship with other hospital staff.

For nurses from Asian countries, they start learning English from high school level. They don't have an environment other than their schools and colleges to improve their English communication skills. After obtaining nursing certificates, all these candidates enroll a nearby coaching centre for a month for preparing IELTS exam. Since the band of 6.5 was comfortable score for all aspirants to score, IELTS exam was a exam which can be attended with a 1-2 month training

Now the band is increased to 7, which too in all sections, has made more fine-tuning of English language skills from the student's side for scoring it. IELTS exam scores are determined based on exponential increase in difficulty. Now the nursing students from Asian nations have to spend 2-3 months of continuous IELTS coaching. Now, many students obtain the score after second and third attempt. Students after passing out directly joins a IELTS coaching centre for a 3 month course, instead of practicing in a hospital, which they are trained for.

The increase in the IELTS score band has not decelerated the ambitions of the nurses from Asian nations looking for immigration for a bright future.