人と人がつなぐ医療のかたち　Hands-on Healthcare Service Provider

Introduction

Dr. Thuc has been contributing to the improvement of nursing education in Vietnam since several years. Specifically, his focus has been projects that improve nurse and nursing student specialties as well as international nursing education overall.
In 2012, to mark the 40th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, Medi Legato and the Vietnam National Institute of Bach Mai Hospital jointly hosted Dr. Thuc to give a speech on nursing education in Vietnam. His diligent activities have led to this project's success.
In this column, Dr. Thuc discussed nursing education exchange programs that he and Dr. Crow at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Francisco worked on together. It is essential to focus on "cultivating human resources" and to follow them up continuously using international medical exchanges.

Sonoko HIROSE

In 2005, the Vietnam Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Education and Training(MOET) directed the nursing schools throughout Vietnam to improve the educational preparation of nurses. Their goal was for the schools to match Asian regional and international nursing education standards.
Dr. Thuc, Vice Director of the Bach Mai School of Nursing (BMNS), met Drs. Crow and Geibert while they were touring the country in 2005 and had requested a visitation at the school to better understand nursing education in Vietnam. During their appointment with Dr. Thuc, Drs. Crow and Geibert toured the school of nursing and the Bach Mai Hospital (BMH). They observed faculty teaching methods, the classroom environment (Figure 1), library and skills lab. They noted and discussed with Dr. Thuc that the curriculum was very out-dated and did not meet standards for regional and international nursing education.

Figure 1. Teacher of Bạch Mai nursing school teach for students

Drs. Thuc and Crow agreed to continue to communicate throughout the next several months after Crow and Geibert returned to the United States. As a result of their conversations, Dr. Crow volunteered to assist in curriculum development for the BMNS. In 2006 Crow returned to BMNS with additional faculty and graduate students from the University of San Francisco, School of Nursing and Health Professions to continue the work with both faculty and students. After returning to the US, Crow met with the dean of the University of San Francisco, School of Nursing (USF/SON) and funded the development of the Vietnam Nurse Project (VNP) for the purpose of assisting BMNS to improve. Project priorities were established and a plan was designed to: (a) to convert the teaching method from being very teacher-centric to a student-centric model, (b) improve teacher effectiveness, (c) evaluate student competency, (d) update the curriculum to reflect international standards, (e) add to the library holdings, and (f) introduce the nursing process which is the scientific method to guide nursing education and practice (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Gregory Crow lecture for students at Bach Mai nursing school in 2006

In 2007, Crow was also able to recruit Professor Greg DeBourgh, EdD, RN, USF/SON to join the project as the Associate Director of the VNP. In 2008, Associate Professor Susan Prior, EdD, RN joined the project, also as an associate director. Along with Dr. Thuc, Crow, DeBourgh and Prion worked with the BMNS faculty and students to improve teaching methods, re-design the curriculum to more closely match international standards and to continue to bring nursing experts from across the US to work with their Vietnamese nurse colleagues. The aim of the program at this time was assist BMNS to move from a 2-year nursing program to a 3-year nursing program, and gain approval for this development from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Training. In addition, the BMNS assumed responsibility for the training and development of hospital technicians, laboratory staff, imaging staff, and rehabilitation staff. In addition to working with the BMNS Crow agreed to work with the Ha Noi Medical School (An Khanh School of Nursing), the Dang Van Ngu Medical School, and Thanh Nhan Hospital in 2009. In 2010 the VNP expanded to include the Viet Duc Hospital, the National Hospital for Tropical Disease, and the Vietnam Nurses' Association. Over the next 6 years Crow brought over 150 nurse experts and faculty to Ha Noi work with the Vietnamese nurse colleagues (Figure 3, and 4, 5). With the increased knowledge, textbooks and student centric teaching methods in classroom and simulation both students and faculty have advanced. The most important aspect of this development was that Thuc and Crow always ensured that they jointly agreed on the direction and content of the VNP.

Figure 3. Sharing of nursing curriculum

Figure 4 Gregory DeBourgh lecture for students

Figure 5-1 Prion Susan introduce simulation practice for teacher and students

Figure 5-2 Prion Susan introduce simulation practice for teacher and students