Difficulty in recruiting highly qualified lecturers in the health sector

On the morning of March 31, the National Assembly Standing Committee's Supervisory Delegation worked with the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Thai Nguyen University, on the implementation of policies and laws on the development and use of human resources to meet the requirements of socio-economic development, especially high-quality human resources, in the period of 2021 - 2024. Vice Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Society Lam Van Doan chaired the meeting.

Vice Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Lam Van Doan chaired the meeting.

Having a good welfare policy is still difficult to attract

According to the Report, the policy of attracting, recruiting and using the teaching staff of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy is stipulated in the Regulations on training and fostering civil servants and employees and the internal spending regulations of the school, which are annually revised and supplemented to suit the reality. These policies are generally considered higher than those of schools in Thai Nguyen University and some medical and pharmaceutical universities in the country.

Specifically, the bonus to attract staff to the school (Master's degree: 100,000,000 VND/person; Doctorate: 400,000,000 VND/person); monthly support for highly qualified teaching staff according to the regulations of Thai Nguyen University (Professor: 1,200,000 VND/person/month; Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer: 900,000 VND/person/month; Doctorate: 600,000 VND/person/month); monthly support for tuition, accommodation, and travel expenses for staff going for training to improve their professional qualifications.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tien Dung, Principal of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, reported to clarify some issues of concern to the Supervisory Delegation.

In addition, the school also pays incentives to staff who complete their postgraduate studies: postgraduate students who successfully defend their thesis at the school level on time (according to the Decision to send them to study): 50,000,000 VND/person; rewards for staff who meet the standards of titles recognized by the State Council of Academic Titles: Professor: 100,000,000 VND/person; Associate Professor: 60,000,000 VND/person.

However, up to now, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Thai Nguyen University, has not been able to recruit highly qualified health workers. The reason, according to Dr. Nguyen Phuong Sinh, Vice Principal of the school, is due to the fear of having to go to graduate school when the salary is still limited; the large difference in salary, initial attraction policies for lecturers, highly qualified lecturers between public medical and pharmaceutical universities and non-public higher education institutions, medical facilities.

The limitation of facilities, equipment, etc. for lecturers to develop their scientific research capacity and deploy techniques to serve the community compared to hospitals, non-public universities, and between localities and the Central Government is also the reason why the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in particular and public universities of medicine and pharmacy in general find it difficult to attract highly qualified lecturers.

Many regulations make it difficult to enroll students.

Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy is an institution that trains medical human resources with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees; conducts scientific research and transfers medical and pharmaceutical technology; supports the development of the health system, and provides services to meet the health care needs of ethnic minorities in the Northern Midlands and Mountains and the whole country. Up to now, the School has trained nearly 40,000 high-quality medical staff. Many alumni of the School have been and are performing health care work for the people, especially ethnic minorities, from the grassroots to the central level.

Currently, the School has a training scale of nearly 11,000 students with 9 undergraduate majors, 43 postgraduate majors and hundreds of short-term training/retraining programs, aiming to regularly update and improve the qualifications of medical human resources in the provinces.

Dr. Nguyen Quang Manh - Head of Training, Science and Technology Department, presented a report and some recommendations and proposals of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

According to Dr. Nguyen Quang Manh - Head of Training, Science and Technology Department, the school's enrollment is also facing difficulties due to some inappropriate legal regulations. For example, pre-university enrollment is implemented according to Article 4, Circular No. 44/2021/ND-CP dated December 8, 2020 of the Government (recruitment), the enrollment quota is included in the general enrollment quota, so the pre-university students when considered for admission have a lower chance of being admitted than regular students.

According to Article 9, Circular 08/2022/TT-BGDDT, the admission threshold for health sector admission is: a) Grade 12 academic performance ranked from excellent or higher or high school graduation score of 8.0 or higher for Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy; b) Grade 12 academic performance ranked from fair or higher or high school graduation score of 6.5 or higher for Nursing, Preventive Medicine, Midwifery, Dental Prosthetics, Medical Laboratory Technology, Medical Imaging Technology, and Rehabilitation Technology. Such regulations are not suitable for medical staff working at health stations in particularly difficult mountainous areas.

Article 5, Circular No. 18/2017/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister stipulates that the quota for regular and part-time transfer is not more than 20% of the regular enrollment quota, which is not suitable for the demand for transfer training in the health sector, especially in the northern mountainous region...

Perfecting the policy of training medical human resources for ethnic minorities

To meet the health care needs of the people, especially in the Northern Midlands and Mountains, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy recommends that the Government review and improve the institutions and policies for training medical human resources for ethnic minorities.

Regulations on salary and other benefits need to be adjusted to suit the training time and the specific level of the profession for health lecturers because they both perform the duties of a lecturer and the duties of a medical staff participating in examination, treatment, and serving the work of taking care of people's health.

Review and adjust the selection criteria for ethnic minority students and the selection criteria for admission to preparatory university courses under the selection regime in Decree No. 141/2020/ND-CP.

Dr. Nguyen Phuong Sinh, Vice Principal of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said that there needs to be policy synchronization to improve the quality of human resource training, including medical human resources.

For the Ministry of Education and Training, it is recommended to study and develop a project on training links between intermediate and college levels with university levels for medical staff working at the grassroots health care level. For pre-university admission, it is not included in the regular admission quota and there should be a special admission mechanism.

Add schools training in the health sector to the group of schools training in specific fields. Adjust the entry threshold regulations for admission to the medical and dental training programs to suit medical staff working at health stations in mountainous areas with special difficulties...

On behalf of the Supervisory Delegation, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Lam Van Doan highly appreciated the efforts and achievements of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy over the past 60 years, training medical staff not only for Thai Nguyen but also for the Northern Midlands and Mountains provinces. The school also has a policy to attract high-quality human resources, which is considered to be superior to many other higher education institutions...

In the context of rapid development of science and technology, the demand for human resource training is increasingly high. Sharing the difficulties of the school in training in the specific field of health care, the Supervisory Delegation hopes that the University of Medicine and Pharmacy will continue to promote its tradition, fulfill its mission of training medical human resources; scientific research and transfer of medical and pharmaceutical technology; support the development of the health system, provide services to meet the health care needs of ethnic people in Thai Nguyen and the region, ensuring both quantity and quality.

The school's recommendations, especially the amendment of legal regulations, will be compiled by the Research Team during the process of developing a monitoring results report as well as perfecting policies and laws in the fields of Education, Health, etc.

Nhat Linh

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/kho-tuyen-dung-giang-vien-trinh-do-cao-khoi-nganh-suc-khoe-post408856.html