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Health care professional — employees who are directly related to provision of health care services (physicians, dentists, nurses and midwives).
Professional qualification — a set of knowledge, skills, experiences and attitudes necessary to perform working duties, which is acquired by learning and/or working and recognised on the basis of regulated, historically or internationally developed requirements. In the field of health care, regulated professional qualifications are qualification of physician, dentist, midwife, nurse, pharmacist and assistant pharmacist.
Speciality — a set of knowledge and skills acquired in an educational institution. Classification of medical specialties in the health care system is based on the List of Specialities of Physicians and the list of Nursing Specialities (see Classifications).
1) Registered health care professionals
A health care professional may provide health services within the acquired professional qualification and speciality with regard to which the Health Board has issued a respective certificate of registration.
In order to get an overview of the registered health care professionals and maintain a register of them, an Estonian Health Care Professionals Register has been established in 2002, which was changed in 2022 to Health Care Providers’ Information System.
Purpose of the statistics on registered health care professionals is to give a general overview of the health care professionals registered in Estonia by sex and age.
The data are published in absolute figures as of 31st December. More information at website of Health Board.
2) Certificates on the recognition of professional qualifications
Mutual recognition of professional qualifications and free movement of health care professionals in the European Union take place on the basis of Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. This Directive establishes minimum conditions of training and required professional experience for all the regulated professions and specialties for free movement of labour.
In order to realise the right of the persons pursuing regulated professions for free movement, the Member States have appointed their competent authorities by professions and these authorities must ensure the rights of the persons pursuing regulated professions who are entering the country on the basis of the Directive, as well as legal rights of the persons desiring to move to another country for work. In Estonia, a competent authority for the regulated professions of health care and pharmacy is the Health Board which is complying with the necessary requirements for free movement and maintaining a register of the certificates on the recognition of professional qualifications.
The purpose of the statistics of the certificates on the recognition of professional qualifications is to give an overview of the health care professionals who have obtained a certificate for working abroad by the professions and specialties. The number of the issued certificates on the recognition of professional qualifications does not include the certificates which have been issued repeatedly in the same year. Thus, the number of the certificates issued within a year is equal to the number of persons who received the certificates in the respective year.
The data will be published as absolute figures.
List of specialities of physicians
List of Specialities of Physicians decree, issued by the Minister of Social Affairs on 28 November 2001, serves as the basis for the classification of doctor’s and dentist’s specialities (in Estonian).
List of nursing specialities
List of Nursing Specialities decree, issued by the Minister of Health Affairs on 13 January 2025, serves as the basis for the classification of nursing specialities (in Estonian).
Liina Saar
Health Board
E-mail: Liina.Saar[at]terviseamet.ee
Updated: 29.05.2026