Health worker abuse cases spark outrage

As Thanh Nien Online reported on April 28, Dr. Vuong Truong Thai, Director of Thanh Ba District Medical Center (Phu Tho) confirmed that a doctor at the center was assaulted while treating a patient. While medical staff were treating a 12-year-old patient who had cardiac arrest due to anaphylactic shock, the patient's family members continuously screamed and even kicked a doctor in the stomach.

There have been many cases of violence against medical staff recently.

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Most recently, at the end of March, a female doctor at the Chu Se District Medical Center (Gia Lai) was punched in the face and head by a patient's family member, causing dizziness and psychological panic. The Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) then sent an official dispatch requesting the Director of the Gia Lai Department of Health to coordinate with relevant agencies to clarify the incident, and at the same time strengthen security and order in medical examination and treatment facilities.

The painful problem of medical staff being abused - Code White (white code - medical staff need to activate and sound the alarm when being attacked, according to hospital procedures) was chosen as the theme of the new forum stage held at the end of April 2025 in Phu Nhuan district, Ho Chi Minh City. The event was organized by the project Play with Pain and the project Ao Blouse Color , attracting many audiences who are teachers, students, and lecturers of medical schools to participate.

Forum stage reenacts scene of medical staff being abused

On the forum stage, the organizers presented a situation where a daughter-in-law took her 80-year-old father to see a doctor. While taking her father to see a doctor, she was receiving phone calls from her company asking about work. Notably, the hospital was so crowded that there was not a single seat left. The daughter-in-law and her father had to wait in line from morning until noon but still could not see a doctor. Finally, late at noon, when a medical staff came to ask about her father and it was the doctor's turn to see her father, she got angry, snapped, and yelled at the medical staff...

PHOTO: THUY HANG

The special thing about the forum stage is that at any stage in the play, the audience below can shout "stop" to join in the play. Except for the role of the daughter-in-law and the role of the father, they can add a new role to change the situation that happens, in a more positive direction, to avoid the worst situation of medical staff being abused.

Like in the recent Code White forum stage, an audience member went on stage, playing the role of the daughter-in-law's colleague. When she learned that her daughter-in-law took her father to see a doctor, she encouraged her and said over the phone, "Don't worry, take your father to see a doctor. I'll take care of everything at the company." Another audience member played the role of the doctor's husband. Knowing that his wife was busy at the hospital with a long line of patients waiting, the husband called and said, "You go to work, I'll prepare food for you, I'll also look after the children." Or another audience member played the role of the hospital director, changing the medical examination and treatment process so that patients would receive more attention and medical staff would not be overloaded... Each person made an effort within their ability to help improve the common problem.

The narrator - like a referee - will also analyze whether the audience's role actually helped prevent violence against medical staff from happening.

PHOTO: THUY HANG

PHOTO: THUY HANG

Solving the pain points in healthcare and education

Dr. Phan Thi Lan Vien, co-founder of the Center for Healthcare Innovation Research (CHIR), co-founder of the Play with Pain project, and head of the Color Blouse project , said that Color Blouse is a project that helps reduce mental pressure and improve stress management skills for healthcare workers. Play with Pain was founded by people who are passionate about the education and healthcare communities.

From the tool of the forum stage - a fun and intellectual playground - the implementers want to increase empathy in the community with those working in education and health. At the same time, from here, many solutions can be found in the community, solving the pressing problems in health and education.

Recently, the projects have coordinated with the Department of Education and Training of Ba Dinh District, Hanoi to organize a stage forum, helping school health workers increase their capacity to educate the community on health. Or recently, the stage forum also came to 350 students of a school in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai with the "hot" topic of school violence.

Dr. Lan Vien said that unlike conventional plays where the audience comes and then leaves, in the forum stage, the audience is both the performer and the viewer. They can request to stop and change the performance, they can offer new alternatives that lead to changes in the ending of the play. The issues addressed in the forum stage are often related to hot issues in society with the aim of exploring solutions.

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Mr. Vu Xuan Nam, an art teacher at Royal School, Ho Chi Minh City, said he attended the Code White forum stage with the desire to understand how to organize the forum stage, so that he can apply it in his education field.

"I am always interested in creative development education, personalized education, so I think that with hot topics, of interest such as school violence, medical staff being abused and many other pressing issues in education and health, the forum stage will certainly be an open, creative and attractive way of education. With this method, we do not impose messages, and students and teachers can all participate, proactively contribute solutions, find solutions to issues that everyone is interested in," Nam shared.