MDCN Exam cheat sheet

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) is the statutory regulator established under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, with a mandate covering registration, licensing, discipline and training standards for doctors and dentists.

Full registration is granted to holders of a recognised medical or dental degree who complete an approved internship (housemanship) and are of good character; provisional registration is time-limited and tied to supervised housemanship.

A licence to practise (annual practising fee) is distinct from registration: registration places a name on the register, while the licence authorises practice for a defined period and lapses if not renewed.

The register is published and searchable; practising without registration or with a lapsed licence is an offence, and employing or covering for an unregistered practitioner is also actionable.

Temporary/limited registration may be granted to visiting or foreign-trained practitioners for defined purposes, usually subject to supervision and a fixed duration.

MDCN's disciplinary powers include caution, suspension and erasure from the register; erasure removes the right to practise until restoration is approved.

Registration decisions are subject to statutory appeal routes; the Council must give reasons and observe fair hearing where a registration application is refused.

Change of name, loss of certificate or additional qualifications must be notified to the Council, which issues updated documentation reflecting the register.

Core duties in the Nigerian code: respect for patient autonomy, confidentiality, competence, non-discrimination, and placing patient welfare above financial or personal interest.

Consent must be informed, voluntary and given by a competent patient; for minors or incapacitated adults, obtain consent from a legally recognised surrogate, and treat emergency situations as implied consent for life-saving care.

Confidentiality may be breached only where legally required or justified in the public interest (for example notifiable disease reporting or a court order), disclosing the minimum necessary information.

Professional misconduct includes negligence, sexual relations with patients, practising beyond competence, falsifying records, advertising in prohibited ways, and abandoning a patient without handover.

The disciplinary process typically involves a complaint/investigation stage, a panel inquiry observing fair hearing, findings, and sanctions ranging from caution to suspension or erasure.

Referral of a colleague for impairment or misconduct is a professional obligation; concealing serious misconduct is itself a disciplinary matter.

Fees must be transparent and not exploitative; fee-splitting or kickbacks for referrals are prohibited, and unnecessary investigations or procedures constitute misconduct.

Certificates and medico-legal reports must be truthful and contemporaneous; issuing a false certificate is a serious offence and may attract both disciplinary and criminal consequences.

Accreditation is a structured quality-assurance process: institutional self-study, submission of evidence, a peer-review site visit, a report, and a Council decision on accreditation status.

Minimum standards address governance, curriculum design and outcomes, student assessment, staff qualifications and student-staff ratios, library and ICT resources, laboratory and clinical skills facilities, and clinical training sites.

Clinical training requires access to adequate patient volume and case mix across the major disciplines, with supervised bedside teaching and defined logbook or competency requirements.

The curriculum must integrate basic sciences with clinical practice and include public health, medical ethics, communication skills, research methods and information technology.

Assessment standards require valid, reliable and transparent methods, including workplace-based assessment, with documented remediation and appeals processes for students.

Accreditation outcomes are typically graded (full, provisional/conditional, or denied), with defined timelines for correcting deficiencies and re-inspection before status is confirmed.

Accredited programmes must maintain records of curriculum mapping, staff development, student feedback and quality-improvement cycles, which are reviewed at re-accreditation.

Substantial changes to curriculum, student intake or training sites must be reported to the Council, which may require re-accreditation review.

Housemanship is a supervised, full-time internship completed after the recognised degree and before full registration; it is normally structured as rotating placements through the major clinical departments.

Interns practise under supervision and must have their logbooks and rotations certified by the supervising consultant and the training institution before full registration is granted.

Training institutions offering housemanship must be accredited by the Council and must provide defined supervision, structured teaching, and adequate clinical exposure.

CPD is a continuing obligation for all registered practitioners; participation is documented and may be required for annual licence renewal or retention on the register.

CPD activities include accredited conferences, workshops, online modules, journal-based learning, case presentations and audit or quality-improvement projects, each carrying defined credit values.

CPD is commonly structured around a credit-point system over a defined cycle, with requirements spanning clinical knowledge, ethics/professionalism and practice improvement.

Documentation and auditability are central: practitioners must retain certificates and records for verification, and false claims of CPD participation constitute misconduct.

Specialist training follows housemanship and proceeds through accredited residency programmes in recognised faculties, with progression governed by examinations and workplace assessments.