Technical Assistance to Hanoi Medical University in Competency Standard and Physical Medicines and Rehabilitation Residency Program

TERM OF REFERENCE
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO HANOI MEDICAL UNIVERSITY IN COMPETENCY STANDARD
AND PHYSICAL MEDICINES AND REHABILITATION RESIDENCY PROGRAM

I.  CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

The International Center (formerly known as Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation -VVAF) is a humanitarian organization that has addressed the consequences of war through advocacy and service programs in Vietnam for the last three decades. As a cofounder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, IC-VVAF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Now The International Center (IC) focuses on disability support, landmine removal, and mental health programs.

IC-VVAF is implementing the Disability Support Project named “Moving without Limits” (MWL), with financial support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the three provinces of Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam and Binh Dinh from July 2015 until September 2022. This project aims to improve accessibility of persons with mobility impairments in Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, and Binh Dinh to quality and affordable assistive devices. The overall goal of the program is to promote social inclusion for people with mobility disability through provision of AT services.

Three specific objectives include:

1. Improved availability of quality assistive technologies/devices (AT/AD) for people with mobility impairments in Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam and Binh Dinh;
2. Improved capacity for the health sector workforce at the national and sub-national levels,
3. Improved advocacy for policies/regulations and information sharing related to AT/AD.

Under the objective (ii), IC-VVAF’s MWL project is working in partnership with Hanoi Medical University (HMU) to upgrade the Physical Medicines and Rehabilitation Residency Program (PMR) as part of the human resource development strategy on rehabilitation for Vietnam.

Thus, IC-VVAF is seeking for technical assistance to assist Hanoi Medical University for this effort.

II.  REHABILITATION TRAINING IN VIETNAM

According to a recent assessment of personnel and training needs in rehabilitation field, Vietnam lacks workforce in this area, both in quality and quantity. The rate of rehab doctor per 10.000 population is about 0.1 (the desirable rate of MOH is 0.7 per 10,000 population) and half of them have background in traditional medicine. Vietnam has six medical universities that train doctors in rehabilitation but only HMU provides the post graduate degree specialized in rehabilitation in Vietnam. However, rehabilitation curriculum is not updated and not based on core competency or does not meet the international core competency standards

Doctors licensed in rehabilitation in Vietnam are now trained for 6 years as a general doctor and then take more 9-12 months of training in rehabilitation medicine (mainly physical rehabilitation), to become a rehabilitation oriented doctor. After training, the student has to practice for 18 months at provincial-level rehabilitation facilities to be granted a license for rehabilitation practice. A rehabilitation oriented doctor could get post-graduation in one of two tracks: practice or research. With a practice track, HMU has a two-year curriculum that call level 1 rehabilitation specialized doctor (stand for CKI) and then another two-year curriculum that call level 2 rehabilitation specialized doctor (CKII). Regarding to the research track, there are 3-year master curriculum and 3-5-year doctorate curriculum. However, both of curriculums are in medicine.

Currently, five out of six medical universities in Vietnam provide a 12-month rehabilitation orientated training or a level 1 rehabilitation specialized training, while HMU has a full range of mentioned-above curriculum. In addition, HMU also has a three year resident doctor training. After training, the resident doctors are recognized at master degree and equivalent to level 1 rehabilitation specialized doctor.

According to HMU Dean, the training regulations applied for medical staff issued by the Ministry of education and training since 2001 are no longer suitable with the requirements of medical education reform in the current period. Hanoi Medical University expressed a need to improve the training program of practice track in rehabilitation toward developing PMR curriculum like many countries around the world do in which, a rehabilitation specialized doctor will be trained for 6 years in general medicine and 3 years more in rehabilitation. However, HMU is no experience in building such a 9-year specialized curriculum.  

The specialist rehabilitation program being used for teaching at the moment is mainly focused on physiotherapy without national competency standards, and not qualified following international competency standards set by WHO, ISPMR, and other countries with best practices such as US-ACGME as such. Thus, HMU expects to upgrade the current specialist rehabilitation education program to become Physical Medicines and Rehabilitation Education program that meets international competency standards.

With this aim, IC-VVAF is working with HMU to do the following tasks:

1. Develop the national competency standards framework on rehabilitation. This also includes assessing the capacity training of PMR for Hanoi Medical University.
2. Develop the HMU’s competency standards on rehabilitation 
3. Develop/refine the PMR curricular for HMU
4. Conduct pilot teaching on the upgraded PMR program
5. Review the PMR program after pilot teaching
6. Finalize the PMR curricular after review

III. PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The purpose of this assignment is to support HMU in developing relevant Physical and Rehabilitation curriculum and support them to standardize their curricular to reach the international standards set by WHO, ISPMR, and other countries with best practices such as US-ACGME.

The main activities of the assignment will include:

Building on work done under the previous agreement for Review & Assessment of this multi-phase project, this sub-phase is expected to provide a detailed written analysis of the findings from review against the standards of international accrediting organizations included in the compare group for PMR training and related competencies. A gap analysis will detail any issues uncovered with the draft Professional Competency Standards and be presented in a draft report to be submitted to IC and HMU leadership for review. A virtual meeting will then be conducted to review the draft report findings and recommendations with IC and HMU project leadership, then edited as required.

IV. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES/OUTPUTS

A final report incorporating the gap analysis and identifying any areas of the draft standards which require revision, addition, expansion, or other enhancements.

V. EXPECTED TIMELINE

From 20^th July to end of August, 2022.

VI. EXPECTED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience in developing educational programs and competency standards that consider the context of local cultures and are consistent with international best practices.
• Conducting gap analyses of accreditation organizations, organizations and institutions that support and sponsor PMR programs.
• Providing training programs for standards developers, program evaluators and accreditors, site visitors, and faculty members.

VII. APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Individual(s)/firms interested in this  missions are invited to submit your applications in English, either by email (to [email protected]) or by post (to The International Center, R.103-203, B3 Building, Van Phuc Diplomatic Compound, 298 Kim Ma, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Vietnam).

Please state “Application for the <position>” in the subject line or on the envelope. The short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Applications should include:

• Expression of Interest;
• CVs demonstrating relevant capacity and experience

Deadline for submission: 17^th July, 2022

For further information, please contact:
Ms. Hua Thi Thu Len – Receptionist
Tel: (84-24) 3733 9444, ext: 9
Email: [email protected]