CME and CPD requirements for healthcare professionals in the UAE

Each authority publishes its own figures, counts them over a different period and uses its own unit. The table shows what each one asks of each profession, as published on 6 October 2026. Read the notes underneath before you compare columns: a DHA figure is per year, a DOH or DHCR figure covers a whole licence.

Reading the table correctly

• DHA: the annual figure is multiplied by the licence term, so a nurse on a three-year licence needs 60 and a physician on a two-year licence 80. Source: the DHA Manual for Licensing Healthcare Professionals (version 1.2, May 2025).
• DOH: the licence is valid for two years and the CME must have been obtained within the two years since the last renewal or first issue, under the DOH Licensing Procedural Manual (April 2024).
• MOHAP: the renewal service pages give hours for nurses, technicians and pharmacists but do not say whether they are per year or per renewal. Ask MOHAP or your facility before you plan around them.
• DHCR: figures are per renewal under the DHCR renewal guidelines. Dubai Law No. 16 of 2024 now requires DHA licences and permits for healthcare activity in DHCC; see the DHCR guide.
• SHA: the SHA renewal service requires the "minimum annual CME/CPD points requirements as mentioned in the PQR" but does not print the figures, and we have not confirmed the PQR table. Ask SHA for the number for your category.

The units differ too. The DHA and DHCR count "CPD points", the DOH counts "CME/CPD credits" and MOHAP speaks of "CME hours". The DOH and DHCR both define one unit as one hour of learning; the DOH also records activity in 15-minute steps of 0.25 credit.

The total is only half of the rule. Each authority also limits what kind of learning can fill it:

What does not count

The DHA is the only authority that publishes a list of exclusions: morning meetings, ward rounds, internal departmental meetings, public awareness sessions, software training, induction and orientation, and product training. The DOH treats companies whose primary business is producing, marketing or selling healthcare products as ineligible CME/CPD providers. Elsewhere, assume that routine work and product promotion will not count unless your authority says otherwise.

Hours alone are never enough. Every UAE authority links renewal credit to learning that is accredited or recognised, and that test matters more than the number printed on a certificate.

• DOH: under the Standard for Continuing Professional Development (2024), a formal activity needs DOH accreditation, accreditation from a national accreditation body, or accreditation to an international standard from an accreditor the DOH has approved and that is recognised in its own country. The DOH quality assurance manual names ACCME, ACPE, AMA PRA, ANCC, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, MOHAP, the DHA, OMSB and SCFHS.
• DHA: the Code of Ethics asks professionals to engage regularly in accredited CPD, and the DHA CPD Accreditation service is open to organisers with a valid UAE commercial licence or legal recognition in the UAE. The 2025 Manual does not list which outside accreditors the DHA accepts.
• DHCR: accredits events run by facilities that hold a valid education permit and keeps discretion over any event's validity and points value.
• SHA: accredits medical education programmes run by clinical training centres in Sharjah.
• Emirates Health Services: EHS is a healthcare provider, not a licensing authority, but its CPD accreditation service is open to facilities licensed by any UAE health authority, approved colleges and licensed medical associations or education centres, at AED 200 to 400 for events under two hours and AED 500 to 1,500 for longer ones. EHS does not state which licensing authorities recognise the points from events it accredits.
• MOHAP: appears in the DOH list of recognised accreditors. We did not find a MOHAP page describing its own CME accreditation service.

Points earned in one emirate can help in another only where the second authority recognises the accreditor. The DOH list includes the DHA and MOHAP; the DHA's current Manual is silent on the point. Keep the accreditation statement on every certificate you rely on.

Healthcare Practise is an independent education provider. No UAE body, whether MOHAP, the DHA, the DOH, SHA, DHCR or EHS, has accredited any of our courses, and no CME or CPD points or credits are attached to them. That shapes what our certificates can be used for.

If you want to use one of our courses towards renewal, ask your licensing authority first. If the course relates to a complaint or investigation, speak to your medical liability insurer, lawyer or employer as well.

1. Confirm your authority and licence term. The authority that issued your licence sets the rule, not the emirate you live in. A DHA licence of one, two or three years changes your target; DOH and DHCR licences run for two years.
2. Work out the total. For example: a DHA pharmacist on a three-year licence needs 60 points; a DOH nurse needs 40 credits per licence; a DHCR dentist needs 50 points.
3. Secure the restricted share first. Book formal, accredited activity early: at least half of the DOH total, and at least half of the DHCR total away from online courses and journal reading.
4. Keep the specialty balance. For the DHA, at least 70% in your specialty; for the DOH, SHA and MOHAP, CME relevant to your field.
5. Record as you go. Upload to Sheryan, update your SHA CME record, or keep your DOH portfolio ready for audit, rather than gathering certificates in the final month.
6. Add learning for your own practice. Ethics, law and communication matter for how you practise even when they sit outside your formal target; Federal Law No. 6 of 2023, Art. 8(12), expects nurses and allied professionals to keep up with developments in their specialty.

If you hold licences from two authorities, plan to the stricter rule in each case and check both renewal dates. Neither authority will look at the other's figures for you.

A complete CPD record does not renew a licence on its own. Missing insurance or an expired life-support card holds up as many renewals as missing hours. The main items, as each authority publishes them:

In every system the facility or the licensing portal checks these items at the same time as your CPD, so gather them together. You may not practise on an expired licence while a late renewal is pending.

CPD rules are stricter when you return after time away, and the official sources do not agree on when that starts. The PQR 3rd version (April 2025), issued jointly by MOHAP, the DOH, the DHA and SHA, applies its return rules to a "discontinuity in clinical practice exceeding three (3) years":

Training must be in an approved practice setting, and other applicants cannot apply after a gap of more than five years. Several official pages still use two years:

• The DOH Return Back to Practice page applies to gaps over two years and asks, for a two-to-three-year gap, for 40 CME and 4 months' training for physicians or 20 CME and 4 months for nurses.
• The DHA Manual defines discontinuity as a gap exceeding two years "as per PQR".
• The MOHAP Services Guide mentions both two and three years in different entries.
• DHCR's gap policy starts at three years; SHA's Return-to-Work Program is for professionals out of practice for three years or more.

Ethics, law and professionalism are part of continuing development under every UAE framework. The DHA Code of Ethics gives CPD its own standard, "Pursue Continuous Professional Development and Learning", and the DHA allows up to 30% of the target as general professional development. The rules themselves keep moving: the PQR 3rd version and the DHA ethics standards both date from 2025.

Our courses are written for that self-directed part of your development: short, assessed courses on the UAE rules for consent, confidentiality, records, prescribing, advertising and probity. Start with the course for your profession, or browse by length on the two-hour course list.