Short-term Consultant on Human Resource for Health

Call for Expressions of Interest and Proposal

#VN013 - Job Title: STC on human resource for health

1. Background:

The Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030, which was adopted by the sixty-ninth World Health Assembly in May 2016, set the four strategic objectives to ensure universal access to health workforce by 2030. Establishing regulatory mechanisms, such as licensing of health professionals and accreditation of health professional training programmes, and alignment of international standards for health professional education are key interventions for improving the quality of human resources for health in line with the Global Strategy. Well-trained health professionals, including medical doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are critical to delivering quality health care. Strengthening the health workforce is needed for Viet Nam to implement its grassroots healthcare and other health sector reforms.

In July 2020, the Viet Nam government established a national medical council in line with the Party Resolution 20 (No 20/2017–NQ/TW) on the protection, care and improvement of people’s health in the new situation which highlighted health professional education reform as one of the priorities for the country. The resolution includes establishing a national medical council to administer national licensing examinations and grant practice certificates according to international standards. The national medical council will set competency standards for health professional education and prepare the conditions for the assessment of health professionals. In addition, the Ministry of Health has drafted the revised Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (LET), which covers health workforce regulation and will be reviewed by the National Assembly in 2021.

Further to this, the Ministry of Health has recently highlighted six major areas of master planning and reform, which include health workforce planning. WHO had collaborated with the Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI) on analysing the health workforce and other systems capacities in three provinces with draft report produced with need for further updating and finalization.

In addition, the Ministry of Health submitted a decree on specialty training in 2020 and aim to develop a framework for graduate medical education. WHO and HAIVN have supported the Ministry of Health in conducting a review of graduated medical education in selected countries.

Based on request from the Ministry of Health, the WHO Representative Office in Viet Nam has provided technical assistance to the Government of Viet Nam in health professional education reform and health legislation in Viet Nam, including on the establishment of a national medical council. The continued areas of WHO support will entail, but will not be limited to, establishment of the national medical council and national licensing examination, health workforce planning, and graduate medical education.

2. Work to be performed

Method(s) to carry out the activity

The consultant can work remotely if needed. The work will involve but not be limited to; coordinating across partners, participating in meetings and workshops (remotely if needed), providing technical advice to documents and reports as required. The consultant will provide support to the UHC team and relevant MOH departments on health workforce regulation and planning.

Output/s

Method(s) to carry out the activity

Output/s

Under the overall supervision of the UHC Team Leader, the consultant will support the UHC team on the following outputs:

Output 1: Technical support to establishment of national medical council and preparation for national licensing examination

Deliverable 1 – Stakeholder mapping of key institutions, experts, and partners involved in the setting of competency standards and implementation of national licensing examination (by 30 Apr 2021)
Deliverable 2 – Operational plan of the national medical council, including expected timeline, milestones, and resources required (by 30 Jun 2021)

Output 2: Technical support to health workforce data and planning and strengthening health workforce data system

Deliverable 3 – Analysis of health workforce capacity at the primary care level and health workforce planning report (by 30 May 2021)

Output 3: Technical support to the development of the graduate medical education system

Deliverable 4: Technical brief on the development of core competencies and a national framework for graduate medical education in Viet Nam (by 31 Aug 2021)

3. Planned timelines (subject to confirmation)

Start date: 1 April 2021

End date: 31 August 2021

4. Specific requirements

a. Qualifications required:

Essential: Master’s degree in relevant areas including medicine, nursing, public health or education science from a recognised university.
Desirable: Doctoral degree in relevant areas including medicine, nursing, public health or education science from a recognised university.

b. Experience required:

Essential: At least 5 years of experience in relevant areas including public health, health policy development and medical education development.
Desirable: Prior experience of working with the Government of Viet Nam or in the Western Pacific Region on health workforce related issues will be considered an advantage.

c. Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

Strong Analytical and communication skills
Ability to write, handle quantitative data and build conceptual models
Knowledge of the health system in Viet Nam desirable.
Specific technical knowledge with health information systems and health work force data bases considered an asset.

d. Language requirements: