Can a Medical Student Be Expelled for Forging Obstetric Delivery Logbook Attestation Signatures in Teaching Hospitals?

A university will summarily expel a clinical medical undergraduate (MBBS or MBChB), cancel clinical rotation credits, and report the student to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) for professional debarment for forging obstetric delivery logbook attestation signatures, fabricating supervised vaginal deliveries, or faking consultant or senior registrar initials on clinical labor ward registers. In accredited medical schools, clinical logbooks represent legal statutory evidence verifying that the student doctor has actively managed the minimum quota of supervised live deliveries, episiotomies, and neonatal resuscitation procedures required for safe obstetric practice; forging medical records subverts patient safety, constitutes criminal forgery, and violates the fundamental Hippocratic commitment to medical truthfulness.

Teaching hospital labor ward management and clinical examination boards implement stringent verification protocols to protect clinical standards and patient safety.

1. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology conducts a pre-examination audit of submitted clinical logbooks prior to the final Part IV MBBS professional examination.
2. The chief clinical coordinator cross-references recorded patient hospital numbers, delivery dates, and neonatal birth weights against the central Labor Ward Delivery Register.
3. The audit reveals non-existent patient folder numbers, delivery timestamps corresponding to off-duty dates, or mathematical fabrications of maternal blood loss volumes.
4. The supervising Senior Registrar or Consultant whose initials appear in the logbook inspects the signature and formally declares it to be a forgery.
5. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine issues an immediate suspension from clinical wards and cancels the student’s eligibility to sit for the professional MBBS examination.
6. The Provost of the College of Health Sciences transmits the investigation dossier to the University Central Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC).
7. The SDC conducts a formal hearing in accordance with constitutional fair hearing, reviewing documentary evidence and forensic signature comparisons.
8. The University Senate ratifies an order of outright expulsion, and the MDCN Secretariat is formally notified to bar the student from admission into any accredited medical school in Nigeria.

Clinical integrity is the bedrock of medical training, ensuring that physician candidates do not endanger maternal and child lives through unverified clinical exposure.

• Official College of Medicine Obstetric and Gynaecological clinical training logbook.
• Certified copies of the teaching hospital labor ward register and patient delivery registers.
• Forensic signature comparison report and written disclaimers from the victimized medical consultants.
• Written testimony of the accused student during departmental investigative proceedings.

Medical students must embrace the demands of clinical duty and complete genuine supervised clinical procedures rather than succumbing to the temptation of forging procedural logs.

Under MDCN regulations and university examination codes, forging clinical signatures is classified as gross professional misconduct and criminal fraud, carrying mandatory expulsion and total debarment from the medical profession nationwide.

Upholding uncompromising honesty in clinical training ensures that graduating doctors possess genuine technical competencies to safeguard human lives in clinical practice.