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Forty-five fake nurses unmasked, 45,000 working and only 18,000 on the register: Madagascar's nursing council and the new private-school approvals it wants frozen
Madagascar regulates nursing through the Conseil de l'ordre national des infirmiers de Madagascar, known as Conim. The legal route is a baccalauréat, three years of university paramedical training with theory and internships, then registration on the Order's roll. The Order's own figures show how far practice had drifted from that rule.
According to L'Express de Madagascar, the Order's president told a press conference at Befelatanana hospital in Antananarivo in April 2024 that 45 fake nurses had been unmasked since its investigations began in December 2023. Impostors were believed to be present in 80 per cent of the country's 23 regions, Analamanga, Ambositra and Sofia among them. About 45,000 people work as nurses in Madagascar, the paper reported, but only 18,000 are on the register. Some large hospitals in the capital were said to employ fake nurses, and the Order said it held the list and intended to make it public. Procedures begin verbally, it added, and those who carry on practising face judicial proceedings.
The focus then shifted to schools. NewsMada reported that in a letter dated 27 December 2024 to the higher-education ministry, the Order asked for a provisional suspension of new accreditations for private paramedical training establishments, citing their proliferation, disorganised competition, lower training quality, a shortage of internship sites and of qualified teachers, and asked for rules allowing non-compliant schools to be closed. On 6 January 2025, according to the same outlet, the Order's president said every nurse must be on the register, that only one of the nurses among a group of detained health workers awaiting trial was legally registered, and that the closure of unauthorised nursing schools, described as a serious danger to public health, had been discussed with the health minister and was already partly under way.
According to L'Express de Madagascar, the Order's inquiries found the impostors were relatives of health workers who had picked up the job by habit, and the paper said a trade in fake nursing diplomas could not be ruled out. The pattern points to employers putting people on wards without checking the register. A gap of 27,000 between those working and those registered is what happens when registration goes unenforced and private schools open faster than anyone can inspect them.
Ghana's unaccredited nursing schools, recorded elsewhere on this site, carry the same lesson. Before paying any paramedical or nursing school, ask the higher-education ministry in writing whether it currently holds an accreditation, and ask the professional Order whether its graduates can register. A school that cannot answer both is selling a certificate, not a career. Pay the institution directly, keep your original documents, and before trusting any practitioner, check the register rather than the uniform.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.