In brief

  • The new membership certificate and practising authorisation forms that nurses receive from the Order’s branches are out of use until 1 October 2027. The National Council of the Order of General Nurses, Midwives and Medical Assistants of Romania (OAMGMAMR) suspended, by Decision no. 35/2026, its own Decision no. 28/2026, which had replaced annexes nos. 3 and 4 to the Order’s Statute. The forms had entered into force on 1 October 2026, so they were in application for 29 days, while the suspension lasts 336.
  • At the meeting of 23 October 2026, the same one that decided the suspension, the single national register of nurses was given a tenth module, named Principal grade. By Decision no. 37/2026, the list of modules in Article 2(1) of Decision no. 4/2020 grows from nine letters to ten, with letter j). The legal basis cited in the preamble is Article 38(1) and (31) of the Methodology for the principal grade examination, that is, the texts that allow answer sheets to be marked by scanning, with the computer application.
  • Those affected are the general nurses, midwives and nurses registered with the Order, including holders of the older Romanian qualifications „soră medicală” and „oficiant medical”, together with the county branches and the Bucharest municipal branch, which issue the annual authorisation. Both decisions were published on 30 October 2026 and enter into force on the same date, since neither provides for a later deadline.
Act: Decisions nos. 35/2026 and 37/2026 of the National Council of the Order of General Nurses, Midwives and Medical Assistants of Romania
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial), Part I, no. 906 of 30 October 2026, pages 15-16
In force from: 30 October 2026, the date of publication

The nurses’ new annual authorisation form lasted 29 days. On 23 October 2026, the National Council of the Order of General Nurses, Midwives and Medical Assistants of Romania decided to suspend until 1 October 2027 the application of its own Decision no. 28/2026, the one that had replaced annexes nos. 3 and 4 to the Order’s Statute with new forms of membership certificate and of authorisation to practise the profession. The suspended decision had entered into force on 1 October 2026. The authorisation is the document which, together with the membership certificate, licenses the practice of the profession for one year, and it records the civil liability insurance policy, the disciplinary sanctions and the number of continuing medical education credits, the same professional currency that the College of Dental Surgeons set at 200 credits over five years for dentists’ right to practise.

What exactly goes out of use can be seen in the July edition. Decision no. 28/2026, adopted at an extraordinary online meeting on 21 July 2026 and published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 633 of 31 July 2026, contained four forms, reproduced in facsimile: the membership certificate and the authorisation to practise the profession, in annex no. 3 to the Statute, plus the associate membership certificate and the corresponding authorisation, in annex no. 4. The authorisation in the suspended version has boxes for the qualification title with series, number and date, for a diploma obtained in another state and the act recognising it, for the insurance policy, for continuing medical education credits, for sanctions and for the capacity in which the profession is practised, salaried, self-employed or voluntary. It also has a line dedicated to the principal grade certificate or attestation, with the session and the speciality.

The second decision published on 30 October 2026 concerns the electronic record. It supplements National Council Decision no. 4/2020, the act that approved the structure and the information in the single national register, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 582 of 2 July 2020. The intervention is one line long: in Article 2(1), after letter i), letter j) is inserted, „modulul Grad principal”, the Principal grade module. Until now the register had nine modules, from personal data and professional status through to members’ subscriptions, and from 30 October 2026 it has ten.

The legal basis the decision invokes says more than its title. Article 38 of the Methodology for organising and conducting the principal grade examination, approved by Order no. 1.137/2018 of the Minister of Health, governs the marking of answer sheets. Paragraph (1) allows it to be done either with the correction grid or by using the computer application, while paragraph (31), introduced by Order no. 409 of 21 July 2025 of the Minister of Health, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 700 of 28 July 2025, states that, where the computer application is used, the answer sheet is marked by scanning it. The new module is therefore not a filing cabinet for certificates, but the place where the electronic marking of the examination sits.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is felt by the branches, from 30 October 2026. The annual authorisation is issued for a calendar year, and applications for 2027 are filed in the last months of the preceding year, exactly in the period in which the new forms go out of application. The suspension leaves no day of transition and does not say which form is to be printed from Friday, 30 October 2026 onwards.

The second effect concerns the authorisations already issued. Between 1 and 29 October 2026 the new forms were the ones in force, so every authorisation issued in that period carries the boxes introduced by Decision no. 28/2026, including the principal grade line and the one on the capacity in which the profession is practised. The suspending act contains no provision about these documents: it does not confirm their validity, does not require them to be reissued and does not establish until when they produce effects.

The third effect can be seen in the register. The Principal grade module is added to the structure approved in 2020 with no indication of what it contains, who fills it in and who has access to it. The 2020 act left the list of personal data processed through the register in its annex, and Article 2(2) links that list explicitly to the registration of members. The annex was not amended on 30 October 2026.

The fourth effect is a matter of calendar. The suspension runs until 1 October 2027, the date on which, under Article 66(2) of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules, a suspended act comes back into force by operation of law. Until then, the National Council may extend the suspension, may amend the forms or may repeal them, but any of these interventions applies, under Article 66(3) of the same law, from the date on which the suspension expires.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until 1 October 2026, the membership certificate and the annual authorisation were issued on the forms contained in the Order’s Statute, adopted by Decision no. 1/2009 of the National General Assembly and published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 120 of 26 February 2009, as subsequently amended. From 1 October 2026 the forms in Decision no. 28/2026 became applicable, more detailed, with full traceability of qualification titles and with the identification code printed on each document. From 30 October 2026 these are suspended.

The difference in pace between the two October decisions is worth reading alongside the calendar of the suspended act. Decision no. 28/2026 was published on 31 July 2026 and was given 62 days before entry into force, time in which the branches were able to prepare their printed forms. The supplement to the register, adopted on the same day as the suspension, provides for no such period: it applies from the day of publication. By way of comparison, the register itself had, in 2020, 91 days between publication and entry into force, from 2 July to 1 October 2020.

In the register it is the number of modules that has changed, not the content of the data. Information about the principal grade was already being collected, since 2020, at point 1.2.2 of the annex to Decision no. 4/2020, in the category of professional training data: attestation or certificate, speciality, year obtained, series, number and issuer. Letter j) gives it a module of its own, it does not bring it into the register for the first time.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • Branches and members return to familiar forms in the very period when the authorisations for 2027 are issued, without a change of printed form in the middle of the campaign.
  • The suspension has an end date, 1 October 2027, and is not a repeal: the detailed forms adopted in July 2026 remain in the Statute and can come into use without a new act of adoption.
  • The Principal grade module gives the examination a place of its own in the register, next to the electronic marking of answer sheets allowed since July 2025, instead of a field lost among professional training data.
  • The two decisions are short and can be read in a few minutes, and both identify precisely the act they touch, with the number of the Official Gazette of Romania in which it was published.

What remains a problem

  • It cannot be established from the text which versions of annexes nos. 3 and 4 apply between 30 October 2026 and 1 October 2027, because the suspended act had already incorporated its amendments into the Statute.
  • The authorisations issued between 1 and 29 October 2026, on the forms now suspended, are given no transitional rule.
  • Decision no. 35/2026 does not state the date on which the suspension takes effect, although Article 66(1) of Law no. 24/2000 requires it to be expressly provided for.
  • Decision no. 37/2026 applies from the day of publication, without a single day of preparation for the branches and without a word about what data go into the new module.
  • Neither of the two decisions says why: neither what defect in the forms called for the suspension, nor what problem the new module solves.

Practical advice

  1. If you received your annual authorisation between 1 and 29 October 2026, keep the document and ask the branch, in writing, to confirm that it remains valid until the expiry date printed on it. Keep the reply as well.
  2. Before filing your application for the 2027 authorisation, ask the branch which form it issues. The text published on 30 October 2026 does not answer that question, so the answer comes from the branch.
  3. Check that the principal grade certificate or attestation, with the session and the speciality, appears correctly in your file at the branch. The new module in the register is built on this data.
  4. Keep your civil liability insurance policy and your continuing medical education credits up to date. They are boxes on the authorisation in both versions of the form, so missing them blocks issuance whatever printed form is used.
  5. If you need the authorisation for an employer in another state or for a recognition file, also ask for a copy of the form on which it was issued, with the number and the date from the branch. In a period when the printed form changes twice in one year, proof of the version used matters.
  6. Follow the Official Gazette of Romania until 1 October 2027. An extension of the suspension, an amendment of the forms or their repeal applies, under Article 66(3) of Law no. 24/2000, from the date on which the suspension expires, so it is published well in advance.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly has been suspended?
The application of Decision no. 28/2026 of the National Council of the Order of General Nurses, Midwives and Medical Assistants of Romania, which had replaced annexes nos. 3 and 4 to the Order’s Statute with new forms of membership certificate, associate membership certificate and authorisation to practise the profession.
From when and until when does the suspension run?
Decision no. 35/2026 provides only the final date, 1 October 2027. It does not state the start date, which follows indirectly from Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000, under which acts of this kind enter into force on the date of publication, that is on 30 October 2026.
Is an authorisation received in October 2026 still valid?
The decision says nothing about it. A suspension does not work in the past, and the authorisation was issued on the form in force at that date, so the arguments for validity are there. To be safe, ask the branch for written confirmation.
Which form will I receive for 2027?
This cannot be said from the published text. The suspension concerns the amending act, not the Statute into which the amendment had already been incorporated, so the question remains open until a clarification from the National Council or from the branch.
What is the Principal grade module in the register?
The tenth module of the single national register, letter j) of Article 2(1) of Decision no. 4/2020. The act does not describe its content, but the legal basis cited in the preamble refers to the marking of answer sheets through the computer application.
Does anything change for those sitting the principal grade examination?
The methodology for the examination is not amended by these decisions. What changes is where the information about the grade ends up in the Order’s records. The data were being collected before as well, at point 1.2.2 of the annex to Decision no. 4/2020.
Do the two decisions enter into force on the same date?
Yes, on 30 October 2026, the date of publication, because neither provides for a later deadline. The suspended decision, no. 28/2026, had postponed its own entry into force by 62 days after publication.
Where can I see the suspended forms?
In the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 633 of 31 July 2026, pages 11-15, where the four forms are reproduced in facsimile, in annexes nos. 1 and 2 to Decision no. 28/2026.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • Decision no. 35/2026, Article I, read together with Articles I and II of Decision no. 28/2026. The suspended act was an amending act, and its effect occurred on 1 October 2026: annexes nos. 3 and 4 to the Statute were replaced by annexes nos. 1 and 2 to the decision. Under Article 62 of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules, amending provisions are incorporated into the basic act from the date on which they enter into force, becoming identical with it, while Article 66(2) of the same law provides that, on expiry of the suspension, the suspended act comes back into force by operation of law. From these two texts it cannot be established which forms are valid between 30 October 2026 and 1 October 2027: the new ones, because they are already part of the Statute, which is not suspended, or the earlier ones, which the suspension of an amending act does not bring back. The question decides a right, because the annual authorisation is the document that licenses the practice of the profession.
  • Decision no. 35/2026, Article I, the date on which the suspension takes effect. Article 66(1) of Law no. 24/2000 requires an act suspending the application of another act to provide expressly both the date on which the suspension takes effect and its determined duration. Article I provides neither: it has only a final date, „până la data de 1 octombrie 2027”, until that day. The start can be inferred only from Article 12(3) of the same law, and the wording chosen leaves it unclear whether 1 October 2027 is the last day of the suspension or the first day on which the act applies again.

Editorial analysis

Each of the two decisions solves a real problem. The forms adopted in July 2026 required the branches to enter on the authorisation the full traceability of a member’s studies, including the act by which a foreign diploma had been recognised, and a suspension is preferable to half application, with printed forms the branches cannot fill in uniformly. The Principal grade module comes, in its turn, after a change that gives it meaning: since 28 July 2025, Article 38(31) of the Methodology for the examination allows answer sheets to be marked by scanning, and an examination application needs a place inside the register, not next to it. Where both remain short is in saying what they rest on and what comes next.

The arithmetic of the decision is written nowhere in the act, but it follows from the act’s own dates. Decision no. 28/2026 was given 62 days of preparation between publication and entry into force, was in application for 29 days, between 1 and 29 October 2026, and is now out of use for 336 days. The suspension therefore lasts 11.6 times longer than the application it interrupts, and the preparation period at the start was more than twice as long as the time in which the forms were actually used. The figure missing from the calculation is the number of authorisations issued in those 29 days. They exist, each one licenses a year of practice, and neither of the two decisions mentions them.

The second observation comes from the overlap of the two decisions adopted at the same meeting. The suspended form is the first to have a line dedicated to the principal grade certificate, with the session and the speciality, as can be checked on page 13 of the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 633 of 31 July 2026. On the same day on which that line goes out of use for 336 days, the National Council creates in the register a module for exactly the same information. On paper, the principal grade disappears from the authorisation; in the electronic record, it is given a module of its own. The direction is coherent, moving the evidence from the printed form into the register, yet neither of the two acts names it, and between those two moments the member is left with a document that says less and with a database they cannot access.

The third observation concerns what was not amended. Letter j) enters Article 2(1) of Decision no. 4/2020, but paragraph (2) of the same article refers to the annex for the list of personal data processed through the register, and the annex remains untouched. If the new module is to hold scanned answer sheets, scores and appeals, these do not appear in that list, which for the principal grade covers only the attestation or the certificate, the speciality, the year, the series, the number and the issuer. The preamble to the 2020 decision expressly invoked the General Data Protection Regulation, so aligning the annex is not a drafting detail.

What should be changed

  • Decision no. 35/2026 should state the date on which the suspension takes effect and its duration, as Article 66(1) of Law no. 24/2000 requires. A branch opening the Official Gazette of Romania on the morning of 30 October 2026 would learn from the act itself from when it no longer uses the new forms, instead of inferring the date from the law on legislative drafting.
  • The text should say which forms apply during the suspension. A single sentence, referring to the version of annexes nos. 3 and 4 in force before 1 October 2026, would close the inconsistency noted above and would spare each branch a decision of its own on the same question.
  • The authorisations issued between 1 and 29 October 2026 should be given a transitional rule. The simplest one, that they remain valid until the expiry date printed on them, would have prevented a nurse from learning from an employer that their document was printed on a suspended form.
  • The suspension should have reached the provisions in the Statute, not the act that introduced them. The wording „se suspendă aplicarea anexelor nr. 3 și 4 la Statut, în forma intrată în vigoare la 1 octombrie 2026”, suspending the application of those annexes to the Statute in the version that had entered into force, produces exactly the intended effect, without calling into question the rule in Article 62 of Law no. 24/2000.
  • Decision no. 37/2026 should say what data go into the Principal grade module, who enters them and who may consult them, and the annex to Decision no. 4/2020 should be aligned. Without these three lines, a member cannot find out what is processed about them in a new module, and Article 2(2) of the 2020 decision remains a reference to an incomplete list.
  • The module should have a date of entry into force, as the register itself had in 2020. The 91 days back then were the time in which the system was built. A module that applies from the day of publication requires the branches to work in a screen that may not yet exist, and the first examination session after 30 October 2026 would enter it without instructions.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 906 of 30 October 2026, pages 15-16 16 pages PDF, 117 KB

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.