Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health has issued an extraordinary gazette to recruit 3,000 student nurses, the first phase of a plan to bring 13,600 new nursing personnel into the state service between 2025 and 2029.
The intake is open to applicants who sat the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination in the science or mathematics streams in 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024. Applications must be submitted through the Ministry of Health and Mass Media website at www.health.gov.lk between May 29 and June 30, with shortlisted candidates selected after interviews. Training for the selected student nurses is expected to begin later this year.
The Ministry said 43,553 nursing officers are currently serving in the state health system. Over the past two years, 3,441 Grade III nurses have been recruited, and 515 B.Sc. nursing graduates were absorbed as Grade III officers on May 29 — the first such graduate intake in five years. Nearly 7,800 student nurses are currently undergoing professional training at nursing schools across the country.
The wider 2025–2029 plan, framed under Minister of Health Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, is intended to close longstanding workforce gaps in state hospitals. The recruitment cadence — 3,441 Grade III hires, 515 B.Sc. appointments, and now 3,000 student nurses in a single gazetted phase — marks one of the most concentrated nursing-service expansions since the post-2022 hiring slowdown.
The shortage has been a recurring point of public friction with the medical workforce, including the Jaffna NPP MP Archchuna Ramanathan complaint by a nursing mother earlier this year and broader GMOA industrial action through April.
Source: Health Ministry issues gazette to recruit 3,000 student nurses — Newswire.
