Fake nurses’ certificates: Govt enhances security features

A NEW certificate with enhanced security features will soon be introduced by the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe to combat the proliferation of fake practising licences.

 

With a severe shortage of healthcare workers plaguing many countries, African nurses have become highly sought after.

 

This demand has created a lucrative market for counterfeit certificates, enabling unqualified individuals to secure jobs overseas.

 

To address this situation, the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe is introducing a new, highly secure certificate embedded with advanced anti-counterfeiting features.

 

The council believes that this measure will significantly deter the production and use of fake documents.

 

Nurses Council of Zimbabwe Registrar Mrs Grace Madondo said the new diploma would ensure that only fully qualified individuals would practice in and outside the country.

 

“Some people are manufacturing fake diplomas out there that can appear like it’s really an authentic diploma. As the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe right now, we are in the process of coming up with a diploma which has got several security features. We issue a diploma for those whom we examine, especially those who are trained by the Ministry of Health and Child Care. So very soon our diploma will have several security features to curb this issue of fake diplomas and practising certificates that is rampant at the moment,” she said.

 

The issue of fake certificates is a threat to the integrity of the profession and the safety of patients, hence the new diploma will ensure that only qualified nurses are allowed to practice.

 

While the introduction of the new certificates was a crucial step, Mrs Madondo called on all healthcare institutions, both locally and internationally, to exercise due diligence when verifying the credentials of nursing staff.

 

“The employer must verify before engaging a person. The person might have a certificate, but the employer should check that it is not a fake practising certificate,” she said.

 

More than 36 000 nurses are registered with the NCZ with the majority being general nurses. For nurses who do post-basic nursing courses, midwives account for 60 percent of these.

 

The country has over the past years lost thousands of trained health workers who move to other countries each year in search of better employment opportunities.

 

As a result, the Government is actively formulating strategies to increase the country’s health workforce by 50 percent while retaining the available workers to ensure improved health service provision for all.

 

Health and Child Care Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora in April said the Government had plans to double the number of all healthcare workers from village health workers to nurses, doctors and all specialists by 2028. The Herald