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Medical Graduates Per 100,000 Population (2019): 23.0
Nursing Graduates Per 100,000 Population (2019): 44.7
Percent Share of Foreign-Trained Doctors (2019): 9.4%
Percent Share of Foreign-Trained Nurses (2019): 1.9%

Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.

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“Undergraduate medical education takes place at the Faculties of Health Sciences at the Universities of Copenhagen, Århus, Ålborg and Southern Denmark. The training programme is six years long and takes place at the four universities and most hospitals. For information on regulation of training, see section 2.8.3. After completing the final medical examination, medical doctors have to undergo one year of practical clinical education to obtain permission to practice independently. This consists of two employments of six months in a combination of internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry or general practice.

“The Ministry of Health defines the postgraduate training programmes for medical specialties based on advice from the National Board of Health and the National Council for Postgraduate Education of Physicians. The Council, through the three Secretariates of the Medical Training (Sekretariat for Lægelig Videreuddannelse), is responsible for the regional planning and coordination of physicians’ clinical training. The National Council gives advice on the number and type of specialties, the number of students admitted to postgraduate training programmes, the proportion of students studying each specialty, the duration and content of postgraduate training programmes, and international collaboration programmes. At the time of writing there are 38 specialties in Denmark compared with 42 in 2001. Because variation in the quality of clinical training, particularly regarding surgical skills, has been heavily criticized, the National Board of Health has set up an inspection system that includes surveillance of the individual departments responsible for training, as well as advising the departments.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

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“Basic nurse training takes three and a half years, and training is carried out at public schools of nursing in collaboration with hospitals. The training alternates between theoretical and clinical education. Clinical education is located at hospitals and in municipalities. Two shorter theoretical education courses for health and social helpers (14 months) and health and social assistants (extra 18 months) have been established to provide training for basic nursing care functions in hospitals and nursing homes.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

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World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated August 24, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.