The paradox of human resources in the medical industry

(Baonghean.vn) -Nghe An Department of Health has just announced a “startling” piece of information: According to incomplete statistics, every year Nghe An province has over 7,500 students studying medicine, pharmacy, nursing at colleges and intermediate levels graduating. Meanwhile, each year the health sector can only arrange about 300 jobs. Thus, in the past 3 years alone, the province has had over 21,000 unemployed graduates. This has put “tremendous” pressure on social security and the entire health sector.

The reason for the surplus is that the medical industry has had and continues to have an "economic" appeal - the majority psychology has stated that:This field of study is not only “impressive” but also ensures a fairly stable life for practitioners. Data from the 2 university entrance exams in 2012 proved this: Hanoi Medical University had 10,509 candidates; Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy had 10,761 applications; Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine had 2,937. The “competition” rate to enter these schools is 1/10 and the entrance score is very high.

Getting into medical universities is difficult, but many candidates still do not measure their strength; parents of candidates still try to "force their fate". And inevitably, "sticking around for a long time will get tiring", many candidates do not choose other majors but study in intermediate and college medical classes... Faced with the increasing demand for studying medicine, many intermediate and college schools compete to open major codes, ask for quotas, promote "connection to university" to "attract" and "sweep" students; lack of teachers so they borrow, lack of facilities, equipment, medical examination and treatment facilities for practice, experiments so they teach in vain. So the "input" quality is already low, going through school without ensuring has made the "output" quality even worse. The concern of college and intermediate students in hospitals and public and private medical examination and treatment facilities is understandable.

Nghe An is in need of young, highly skilled doctors.
- Photo: Tu Thanh

Back to the paradox of medical human resources in Nghe An: Graduates from colleges and intermediate schoolsThere are many doctors and pharmacists, but the number of doctors and pharmacists who have graduated from regular medical universities is extremely "scarce". Up to now, Nghe An Health Sector still needs about 1,000 doctors, but the number of doctors who have graduated from regular universities in Nghe An is very small. In 2012, the Provincial General Hospital had a hard time inviting 33 doctors who had just graduated with excellent or fair grades from Hanoi Medical University, Hue Medical University, and Thai Binh Medical University to work. The leading hospital of the province is like that, but the specialized hospitals, mountainous and rural areas are even "hungrier" for doctors.

Nghe An Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital currently has 23 doctors, who are taking care of and treating 2,500 patients in the province and directing 20 districts and cities to prevent tuberculosis. In 2012, the hospital was only able to "attract" 3 specialized doctors from other medical facilities in the province and no regular university graduates applied to work. Even more sadly, Nghe An Mental Hospital has not had a regular university graduate working for nearly 20 years. Of the 480 commune, ward and town health stations, there are only 287 doctors.

The paradox of human resource shortage and surplus in Nghe An Health Sector is currently very serious; it is time for the Health Sector to review its attraction policy; at the same time, have opinions for the Education Sector and the Labor Sector about the current poor quality training, mainly for "tuition fees". Candidates as well as their families need to consider their abilities, think about the needs of society to carefully choose the profession to study, avoid the situation of "bad teacher, bad worker", wasting time and money. The medical profession is based on "Medical ethics" and is not as attractive as people think.../.

Thanh Chung