Introduction

  The Direction Office of Healthcare Activities (DOHA) started around 1998 in Vietnam offers training provision for all lower- and higher-ranked hospitals. An understanding of the factors responsible for the success of this unique training provision system can be useful in implementing appropriate human resource development strategies in the health sector. Furthermore, the reviews about the changes in the training provision styles can offer us clues on how to connect training provision with visible clinical improvement.

Method

  We reviewed the policy papers from the ministry of health in Vietnam, the activity reports of DOHA in the training center of Bach Mai hospital, which is a high-ranking hospital, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) reports, and NCGM (National Center For Global Health and Medicine) reports from 1997 to 2015.

Results

  DOHA was founded as a government-led health provision system in Vietnam with strong policy guidelines. However, to expand their activities, strengthen the capacity of training in hospitals, and establish a financial mechanism for training, there was a need to empower lower-ranked hospitals.

  To enhance the training impact of the clinical field in lower-ranked hospitals after training provision, staff of higher-ranked hospitals were dispatched to lower-ranked hospitals to provide on-the-job training (1816 project) and training provision with equipment preparation in lower-level hospitals to overcome environmental difficulties in implementing techniques that they had learned (Satellite hospital project).

Conclusion

  “Strong policy commitments”, “a viable financial system”, and “bottom-up empowerment” were needed to establish nation-wide continuous medical education system in Vietnam. To connect training provision with improvement in the clinical field, “integrated approaches for multiple factors in clinical fields like clinical environment changes and extended follow-ups“ by providing training are needed.