Continuing medical education programs for primary care physicians from remote locations of Vietnam: a needs assessment

• Published in: BMC medical education 2022-04, Vol.22 (1), p.279-279, Article 279
• Main Authors: Giang, Pham Ngan, Kelly, Matthew, Nhung, Nguyen Thi Tuyet, Sarma, Haribondhu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child Health; Continuing medical education; Continuing Medical Educational; Cross-Sectional Studies; Curricula; Education, Medical, Continuing; Educational Needs; Emergencies; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health services; Hospitals; Humans; Knowledge; Maternal & child health; Medical care; Medical education; Medical emergency care; Medical personnel; Methods; Needs analysis; Needs Assessment; Physicians; Physicians, Primary Care; Population; Practice; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Quality of service; Questionnaires; Skill Development; Skills; Study and teaching; Surveys and Questionnaires; Training; Vietnam; Workforce
• ISSN: 1472-6920; 1472-6920
• DOI: 10.1186/s12909-022-03336-4

Inadequate attention has been given to ensuring ongoing training to improve knowledge, skills and capacity of primary health care providers in low- and middle-income countries. The Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam is providing training sessions for physicians working in commune health stations (CHSs) in three mountainous, remote northern provinces in 2019. This article aims to assess these physicians' knowledge of correct medical responses to emergencies in order to assess their training needs. We conducted a cross-sectional study amongst doctors posted to CHSs located in 3 mountainous remote provinces of northern Vietnam. We used a self-administered questionnaire that comprised questions on common medical emergencies, maternal and child care, and non-communicable disease management. We performed Chi-square tests to assess the statistical significance of differences in the mean proportions of correct answers for each health care question category, and for differences in mean proportions of correct answers by doctor characteristics. In total 302 doctors were recruited to the study. More than half of the sample answered 30-50% of the questions correctly, followed by around a third who answered 50-70% correctly. Less than 2% of doctors answered more than 70% correct responses to the entire question set. There were statistically significant differences between question categories, with cardiovascular care questions answered correctly significantly less often than any of the categories (p