Proposal to expand training and pay for resident physicians

Instead of considering resident doctors as an elite training model, Hanoi Medical University proposes switching to mass training, paying them during their studies.

Professor Doan Quoc Hung, Vice Principal of Hanoi Medical University, expressed his opinion at the 50th anniversary of training Resident Doctors on the morning of February 26.

Residency is a special training program in the medical field. It is considered elite training, for excellent students to study immediately after graduating from university. This model originated in France, then spread to European countries, the US and around the world.

In Vietnam, Mr. Hung said that Hanoi Medical University recruited its first class of resident physicians in 1974. Since then, the school has trained nearly 5,200 doctors, with many changes in each stage, in line with world trends.

Regarding the entrance standards, before 2015, the condition for taking the residency exam was a graduation exam score of 7 or higher, but after that, candidates only needed to graduate and not be disciplined to take the exam. With this change, the rate of students taking residency increased from 10-15% in the period 1974-2014 to over 65% in the period 2015-2023.

Instead of having to register for a major first and then take the exam, and failing to pass will be eliminated immediately, candidates can now choose their major after the results are out, according to the principle that those with higher scores will have priority in choosing the major. Therefore, majors that were previously chosen by very few students now have residents such as Geriatrics, Parasitology, etc.

At the same time, resident physicians have been involved in working on a wider scale.

"Previously, 90% of resident doctors stayed at school or at central hospitals, but now the rate of resident doctors at provincial, city and non-public hospitals has increased to 35%," said Mr. Hung.

Believing that the increase in the number of resident doctors, when returning to work at the provincial level, will contribute to changing the quality of medical examination and treatment in a positive direction, benefiting people and reducing pressure on central hospitals, Hanoi Medical University proposed to expand training in this system .

"It is necessary to expand the enrollment target to 90% of graduates who are trained as internal medicine residents and want to continue practicing medicine, they must complete an internal medicine residency," Mr. Hung emphasized.

This is also in line with the global trend. According to Mr. Hung, most countries currently require doctors who want to practice to do a residency after completing their undergraduate program. Residency, which is an elite training program, needs to be transformed into a mass training model.

The proposal of Hanoi Medical University received the approval of many experts, such as Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Hinh, former Principal or Associate Professor, Dr. Dao Xuan Co, Director of Bach Mai Hospital.

Mr. Doan Quoc Hung shared at the 50th anniversary of training resident physicians of Hanoi Medical University, February 26. Photo: Duong Tam — Mr. Doan Quoc Hung at the 50th anniversary of training resident physicians, Hanoi Medical University, February 26. Photo: *Duong Tam*

In addition to the proposal to expand training, Mr. Doan Quoc Hung said that resident doctors should be granted temporary practice certificates. During their training, they practice as medical staff at the practice hospital, so they need to be paid a salary and remuneration to be able to study with peace of mind. Currently, resident doctors do not have scholarships, are not paid a salary and still have to pay tuition.

Mr. Hung also proposed expanding the training of resident physicians by location (Department of Health and non-public hospitals), and at the same time comprehensively innovating the program, teaching and learning methods, and evaluation in resident physician training.

Representatives of Hanoi Medical University hope that the training of resident physicians will be legalized. Specifically, the Ministry of Education and Training recognizes the residency degree as a postgraduate degree. The Ministry of Health stipulates that training of resident physicians is essential in advanced specialties, completing policy frameworks related to tuition support, granting practice certificates, etc.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan asked Hanoi Medical University to coordinate with other medical training schools to thoroughly review the training of resident doctors in the past to advise the Ministry on the direction of international integration, but still meet the requirements of Vietnam's medical human resources; propose specific solutions to improve the quality of this training model.

"The most important thing in this is to clearly define the direction in which the training model for resident physicians will be innovated," said Ms. Lan.

Currently, the country has 13 higher education institutions training resident physicians. On average, 900 people graduate as residents each year, over 40% of whom come from Hanoi Medical University.

Duong Tam

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