Share of foreign-trained doctors, 2021: 9.5%
Medical graduates per 100,000 population, 2021: 22.0
Share of foreign-trained nurses, 2021: 1.8%
Nursing graduates per 100,000 population, 2021: 45.3
Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.
“Physicians’ career paths are based on a system of postgraduate medical education. Postgraduate medical education comprises pre-registration training, specialist and subspecialist training. The postgraduate medical education structure begins with pre-registration training called clinical basic education (klinisk basisuddannelse). The newly graduated medical doctors are placed in temporary positions for a year, made up of two 6-month placements in a combination of internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry or general practice. The objective of clinical basic education is to give graduates a broad introduction to the health care sector. To distribute newly qualified doctors between specialties and geographical areas according to need and capacity, placements are distributed throughout the country by lottery.”
Source: Birk HO, Vrangbæk K, Rudkjøbing A, Krasnik A, Eriksen A, Richardson E, Smith Jervelund S. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2024; 26(1): i–152.
“Clinical basic education is followed by specialist training. Specialist training begins with a 12-month introduction as a prerequisite to applying for specialist training. The introduction to the specialty serves as a way of ensuring that the specialty is suitable for the candidate and that the candidate is right for the specialty. “Introduction” positions are opened according to agreements between the Danish Health Authority and the relevant specialty. The candidates are selected by an appointments committee comprising the department director/postgraduate clinical director and a representative of the Medical Association. Applicants are scored in seven categories, reflecting so-called doctors’ roles: medical expert, communicator, cooperator, health promoter, leader/administrator, academic and professional (Dehn et al., 2009).
“This introduction is followed by specialization in 1 of 38 different medical specialties. Specialist training positions are a combination of placements in different departments for 48 to 60 months. Finally, specialization is completed at various locations, usually representing the specialty’s basic and highly specialized departments. This way, doctors in training are moved to different hospitals as part of their specialization.”
Source: Birk HO, Vrangbæk K, Rudkjøbing A, Krasnik A, Eriksen A, Richardson E, Smith Jervelund S. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2024; 26(1): i–152.
“Postgraduate nurse training is 30 to 78 weeks of on-the-job training. Completed postgraduate training confers the title of specialist nurse. Admission requirements for postgraduate training typically include at least 2 years of clinical practice as a nurse. Some specialties have additional specific requirements. The training has both theoretical and systematic clinical supervised units. At the time of writing, there are seven nurse specializations: mental health care for adults/children and adolescents, anaesthesiology, intensive care, infection hygiene, cancer care, health visiting and community health care. The Ministry of Health and the Danish Health Authority regulate postgraduate training.
“The labour market for nurses is broad. There are good opportunities to work without on-call obligations, with greater flexibility and for a higher salary than a permanent position in the regional health service. Since 2019, there has been a large net departure of nurses from the regional hospitals to the municipal health sector as well as specialist practice and general practice. At the same time, there has been a smaller net departure to private hospitals and the industry of substitute workers.”
Source: Birk HO, Vrangbæk K, Rudkjøbing A, Krasnik A, Eriksen A, Richardson E, Smith Jervelund S. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2024; 26(1): i–152.
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Page last updated April 22, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.