Strengthening teaching medicine in Vietnam 

Project location:Vietnam

Project title:Strengthening teaching medicine in Vietnam

Organization in the South: Hanoi Medical University ( http://www.hmu.edu.vn/news/default.asp) - Trường Đại Học Y Hà Nội, Hanoi, Vietnam. 

• The project aims to enhance the quality of teaching and research for those institutions in Vietnam producing the staff for the preventive medicine system, especially to enable the health services in the mountainous and other more remote areas to upgrade and develop into good preventive medicine centers.The project responds to the demand in the country for thousands of well trained doctors in preventive medicine. In addition new challenges arise from increasing international contacts (SARS, avian influenza) and industrial development (environmental health) and the recent creation by the Government of Vietnam of separate preventive medicine departments in all districts, requiring thousands of new preventive medicine doctors. The assignment is to conduct the project entitled ‘Strengthening teaching and research capacity of preventive medicine in Vietnam’ in cooperation with Hanoi Medical University (Faculty of Public Health).
• The objectives are to improve both technical and training capacity of the university level teachers and training conditions in preventive medicine in Vietnam.
• A problem-based approach will be applied in both pre-service and in-service training. With this project the FPH wants to start the development of the new curriculum using a problem-based approach.
• The curriculum should meet new challenges in Vietnam, such as increasing international links that bring new health hazards such as SARS and avian influenza and new industrial developments in Vietnam that bring occupational health hazards. 
• Recently the FPH also makes efforts to develop better capacity to research and teach about the social determinants of health, including gender, poverty and ethnicity, which are especially important from a public health point of view.
• Another priority is to improve the capacity of the staff, especially the young staff, to work in an international environment, that means to be able to work with international experts visiting Vietnam, to be able to study abroad for Master and PhD degrees, and most importantly to be able to use the modern information and communication technology to keep their knowledge up to date and to establish and maintain international cooperation especially in the region. Four groups of activities are planned:
  

The project targets:

1.  Hanoi Medical University, Faculty of Public Health, lead partner of a consortium of four universities:

1. Thai Nguyen Medical School
2. Hue Medical School
3. Can Tho Medical and Pharmaceutical University
4. Tay Nguyen Medical Faculty

2. In addition Thai Binh, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh Medical and Pharmaceutical University will also benefit from the project.

 Expected results of the project

1. Good standardized curriculum, teaching/learning materials and evaluation tools to train preventive doctors and technicians using a problem-based approach, produced by collaboration and consensus among the 8 medical faculties/colleges under the leadership of FPH HMU
2. Improved quality of practice by providing good infrastructure and equipment for laboratories of preventive medicine in HMU and four key medical colleges serving mountain and remote regions
3. Improved professional technical capacity of teachers by providing training in selected fields and skills
4. Improved the research capacity of teachers and provincial preventive medicine staff with special attention to the needs in the mountain and remote provinces and to both the technical methods for better risk analysis and the social determinants of health such as gender, poverty and ethnicity
5. Strengthened capacity of teachers/graduates to respond to the real situation by developing field sites for community study for HMU and 4 medical colleges serving mountain and remote provinces
6. Improved quality and relevance of in-service training for preventive medical staff at provincial levels by developing curriculum for all eight medical colleges and pilots in selected provinces.
7. In early period of the project, a description of the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed for a preventive doctor and for preventive technicians are formulated and agreed among all eight medical schools and by the end of the project, approved by MoH.
8. By the end of the first year, 01 standard professional laboratory with adequate facilities and equipment for teaching practice and 01 computer room for teaching ITC skills and medical statistics are available at FPH, HMU. In the 04 smaller faculties, practical facilities will be upgraded for better practical teaching.
9. By the end of the project, HMU will have at least 45 teachers with better knowledge and skills in preventive medicine; in the other four directly involved faculties, at least 10 teachers who have enough capacity to teach the new subjects necessary for preventive  medicine.
10. By the end of the project, HMU will have at least 30 teachers able to apply a problem-based approach for teaching preventive medicine. In the other faculties, where the approach has not yet been introduced at all, at least 10 teachers in each school will have acquired at least some capacity to use the problem-based approach in teaching preventive medicine.
11. By the fourth year of the project, the 6-year curriculum, with all needed teaching and learning materials, teaching methods, evaluation methods and tools for training preventive doctors and preventive medical technicians are standardized and agreed among all eight medical schools and approved by MoH. The numbers for each product determined based on the result of output 1.
12. By the end of the project, 05 centers for consulting in teaching and research on preventive medicine with good working conditions and high capacity of staff are ready in HMU and on appropriate scale in the 04 selected medical schools serving the remote and mountain provinces. These centers are able to train and advise other teaching staff and graduate students from all faculties on developing and implementing research in preventive medicine fields.
13. By the end of the project, 01 training centre with good facilities and training equipment for teaching preventive doctors and technicians is available at HMU that can provide support to smaller schools to maintain and improve their capacity on a continuing basis into the future.
14. By the end of the project, at least 15 short training courses on selected topics were conducted in Vietnam by international and Vietnamese teachers for teachers of all medical schools.
15. By the end of the project, 12 teachers will have improved knowledge and skills in preventive medicine topics by study in the Netherlands (PhD or master); at least 18 teachers will have updated knowledge by participating in short courses, in the Netherlands or other developed countries on topics of preventive medicine (teachers selected from all medical schools according to available staff with enough capacity, with highest priority for HMU and 4 selected schools).
16. By the end of the project, research results will include at least 03 preventive medicine studies at central level by teachers and staff at universities and institutes (with scientific articles published); 12 researches done at provincial level, assisted by the teachers of all medical schools; 08 graduate theses of preventive doctors supervised by the teachers. All these researches will apply the range of updated cross-discipline research methods introduced and supported by the project.
17. By the end of the second year, 05 field sites for teaching preventive medical doctors in the field will be established in 5 pilot provinces for HMU and the four selected medical schools serving the remote and mountainous provinces, where a standard preventive medicine system is available (from province to commune), for preventive students practice in the field.
18. By the end of the project, the procedures, program outline, contents, materials and ethods for refresher training and in-service training are completed and approved by MoH, ready for application in provinces and provided by all medical schools.