Nursing staff is in serious shortage. The number of nurses is twice that of doctors. In 2024, the ratio of nurses in Vietnam is estimated to reach 18/10,000 people, much lower than the world average.
Nurses in Ho Chi Minh City support treatment for patients - Photo: THU HIEN
The Government has just approved the Plan to implement the healthcare network planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050. It mentions the development of high-quality human resources.
"Thirst" for nursing staff
In many hospitals today, regardless of whether the patient is seriously ill or not, unless they are in an isolation area, their personal hygiene and daily meals are taken care of by family members. This work should be done by professionals, such as nurses.
In fact, the shortage of nurses in medical facilities has been happening for many years. Mr. Nguyen Van Thuong, director of Duc Giang General Hospital (Hanoi), said that in other countries, patients receive comprehensive care, all of which is taken care of by nurses. Patients' relatives do not have to do anything, they just visit hourly.
"If we are building such a comprehensive health care industry, there is a shortage of nursing staff," said Mr. Thuong.
In the report on planning the health care network for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, the Ministry of Health proposed that the target of doctors per 10,000 people (10,000 people) to be achieved by 2025 is 15 doctors/10,000 people and 25 nurses/10,000 people. By 2030, the target will be 19 doctors/10,000 people and 33 nurses/10,000 people.
The Ministry of Health's forecast on medical human resources shows that the demand for doctors and nurses will continue to increase over the years, with a large shortage after 2030. In particular, the shortage of nurses, forecast statistics show that the shortage of nurses is twice as large as the shortage of doctors.
The Ministry of Health said that in the period of 2021 - 2030, the country needs to add about 173,400 doctors and 313,900 nurses. Of which, the greatest need is in the Red River Delta with about 43,500 doctors and 76,100 nurses.
Next is the Southeast region, which needs about 34,900 doctors and 61,700 nurses. The North Central Coast region: about 33,400 doctors and 59,800 nurses...
Nurses support patient care - Photo: THU HIEN
High tuition, not enough income to live on
Ho Chi Minh City has set a target of more than 17,000 nursing staff by 2030, but according to forecasts, it will only meet about 50%.
A recent survey on nurses' income at hospitals and medical centers by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has just been announced, showing that more than 66% of newly graduated nurses have salaries from 5-10 million VND and more than 7% have salaries under 5 million VND.
Ho Chi Minh City currently has 6 universities that train nursing professionals, with the lowest training cost being 42 million VND and the highest being 87 million VND. Thus, on average, each year a nursing student must pay tuition fees of 5-10 million VND/month, for a total of 4 years of study, equal to the salary of a new nurse working in a hospital.
This puts a huge financial burden on nursing students. A new nurse working in a hospital for 4 years can only afford to pay back the tuition fees if not for expenses.
Talking to Tuoi Tre, nurse TTH (27 years old) who is working at a public hospital shared that before, at university, nursing students spent about 5-10 million VND per month on tuition. Not including food, transportation, and documents, the average monthly cost was about 10 million VND.
However, after graduating and working for 5 years, in addition to the starting salary, the total income for daily allowance and food is now less than 10 million VND.
"Low income, on-duty allowance, and insufficient food and drink have led to many people not being interested in their work. Many colleagues have quit their jobs and chosen other paths because their low income is not enough to cover family expenses and take care of their children..." - nurse H. shared.
A head nurse at a tertiary hospital in Ho Chi Minh City said that the role of nurses in hospitals is no less important. After the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of nurses have quit, leading to the remaining workforce now having to take on many different jobs. However, the salary is low, many people do not have enough to take care of their family life.
Typically, the current 24/7 on-call allowance for nurses is only 130,000 VND, including meals. In addition, the cost of further education, which is 40-50 million VND, is not supported, and many people are discouraged and do not want to stick with the profession.
"Current salaries and allowances are not commensurate with training costs, especially for newly graduated nurses, leading to difficulties in making ends meet and, of course, not being committed to their jobs," said the head nurse.
Solution to difficult "problem"
Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Mr. Nguyen Dang Ly, principal of Ho Chi Minh City International College, said that the number of students enrolling in nursing at the school has increased every year, but the increase is very small. For many different reasons, such as not having enough income after graduation to live on, students do not want to enroll.
Every year, hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, including end-line hospitals and district hospitals, come to schools to recruit nurses but never meet the demand. Even many foreign units commit to supporting 70-100% of tuition fees but still have no students. In the long term, there needs to be more policies to attract this force such as: tuition support, increased income...
Nurse Lu Mong Thuy Linh, deputy head of the medical profession department of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, said that in the next 5 years, the city aims to have 38-39 nurses per 10,000 people, equivalent to nearly 17,000 nurses.
Meanwhile, each year only about 1,800 nurses are trained (not including the number of about 300 people who quit their jobs/year), not only providing nurses for the city but also other provinces. Thus, after 6 years, the city will only be able to supplement about 50% of the number of nurses according to the demand, enough to take care of people's health.
According to the Ministry of Health's guidelines, by 2025 all nurses in hospitals must have a college degree or higher. Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that in order to improve the quality of healthcare, in addition to investing in infrastructure and information technology, the healthcare sector also focuses on improving the quality of human resources.
"People are identified as the decisive factor in all activities in the medical field, so enhancing training and professional development for medical staff is one of the important solutions to improve the quality of medical services," said Mr. Thuan.
In the planning of the grassroots health network, the Ministry of Health also affirmed that ensuring sufficient quality human resources is one of the important solutions to ensure feasibility in implementing priority investment projects of the planning of the grassroots health network.
Pilot model of "nursing assistant" and "dental assistant"
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health proposed a solution to create a positive working environment and assign reasonable tasks to nurses. Supplement policies to attract and recruit nurses at hospitals.
The city proposed piloting the model of "nursing assistant" and "dental assistant" to support nurses, reduce workload and help nurses focus on their expertise. These people are trained for a short period of 3 months, supporting patients with personal hygiene, hospital beds, eating and moving around the hospital, doing tests... At the same time, supplementing policies to attract nursing students at universities.
By 2030, Vietnam needs to add more than 300,000 nurses.
According to the International Nurses Federation, statistics show that after the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 20% of nurses have quit their jobs, leading to an increasingly serious nursing shortage.
In some developed countries such as Japan, the US and European Union (EU) countries, there is a serious shortage of nurses, forcing these countries to change their residency laws to recruit nurses from abroad.
According to the Ministry of Health's forecast, in the period of 2021 - 2030, our country still needs to add about 72,000 doctors and 304,000 nurses. The Vietnam Nursing Association also sets a target of striving to reach 25 nurses/10,000 people by 2025, by 2030 this ratio will be 33 nurses and by 2050 this ratio must reach 90 nurses/10,000 people.
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Next: To improve the quality of healthcare, human resources must be "synchronized"
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lam-gi-de-nang-chat-luong-y-te-ky-1-thieu-hut-dieu-duong-tram-trong-20241230232412233.htm
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