The article considers the impact of professional certifi cation of health workers on their motivation to work. The research is based on the empirical data from two sociological polls of health workers in 2014 and 2018. Methods of the cross tabulation, correlation and cluster analysis are applied to examine the obtained data.
The study has shown that for most of doctors and nurses the results of certification do not have a positive impact on changes in their motivation to work. Health workers  do not consider exacting recertification of employees as an incentive to the professional growth and increase in labor contribution. However, there is an impact of certification on motivation to work for those physicians who following the results of certification had positive changes either in the nature of work or in the level of its remuneration.
According to the majority of medical personnel, the main way of increase in objectivity of certification has to be a confi rmation of professional skills by certificates on mastering modern methods of medical care. The other part of medical personnel gives a priority to the independent check of test tasks.
It is relevant to raise the issue of the differentiation of institutional design of two different functions that certification performs for different groups of doctors: a) confirming the already obtained professional status by maintaining the previously assigned professional category, b) increasing their status by assigning a new professional category.