Choose Vietnam to pursue your dream

We met Kaensivong Phetsaon (22 years old), a fourth-year student at Quang Binh Medical College, at the school's dormitory building. The room is about 30 square meters wide, equipped with essential amenities such as a bed, mattress, blanket, sheet, electric fan, and private bathroom. "The room here is just like my room at home. The only difference is that I live with my friends!", Kaensivong said.

Talking about his journey to Vietnam, Kaensivong said that he has been passionate about medicine since he was a child and has always pursued his dream of wearing a white coat to take care of the health of his hometown people. With advice from his parents and siblings who studied medicine in Vietnam, he knew that Vietnam has good learning conditions, a friendly environment, and teachers who are good at their profession. Those factors made him decide to choose this place as the destination to fulfill his dream.

Lao students from Quang Binh Medical College participate in practicing medical examination and treatment with a model in the classroom. (Photo: Dang Tai)

In the early days of his arrival, Kaensivong could not speak Vietnamese, so he encountered many difficulties in studying and daily activities. That was also the time when the Covid-19 epidemic in Quang Binh broke out strongly. Although he was very worried about social distancing, the friendliness and enthusiasm of the teachers supported him mentally to overcome the difficult period.

“Teachers always worry about us, treat us like their own children, take care of us, ask about our health, and pay attention to every little thing. Vietnamese students also always support us both materially and spiritually. In Vietnam, we feel close as if we were in our own homeland,” Kaensivong said.

Looking back on his four-year journey of studying in Vietnam, Kaensivong believes that pursuing a medical career here was the right decision. He has compared the medical curriculum of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and found that there are not many differences. However, when studying in Vietnam, teachers teach thoroughly, giving many real-life examples to help students understand and gain a deeper understanding of medical knowledge. Especially for Lao students, teachers give even more detailed instructions.

Help Lao students gain professional skills

Ms. Le Thi Minh Toan, lecturer at Quang Binh Medical College, said that for Lao students, many of them have studied for a while but their Vietnamese is still not fluent, especially in medical terminology. This is a major obstacle that makes them absorb knowledge more slowly than Vietnamese students. Therefore, Ms. Toan and the lecturers at the school are always dedicated to each page of the lesson plan, finding ways to communicate in a way that is easy to listen to, easy to understand, and creating the best conditions for Lao students to acquire knowledge and skills, improving the quality of their studies.

According to Mr. Le Viet Hung, Acting Principal of Quang Binh Medical College, there are currently 85 Lao students studying at the school. In order for them to acquire specialized knowledge well, the school has assigned experienced homeroom teachers; organized Lao language classes for lecturers to serve teaching and management tasks; and established groups of Vietnamese students to help Lao students during their studies.

Besides Quang Binh Medical College, many educational institutions across the country have been contributing to training quality medical human resources for Laos, such as: Hue Central Hospital; Vinh Medical University; Quang Tri Medical College... These institutions are all striving to find new ways to improve teaching efficiency, ensuring that Lao students after graduation return to their country to develop their capacity, have solid expertise, be proficient in professional skills, and be able to immediately start working in medical examination and treatment.

Lao students from Vinh Medical University participate in clinical practice and observe a surgery at Nghe An General Hospital. (Photo: Tu Thanh)

Typically, Son La Medical College conducted a survey and collected opinions from Lao medical facilities on the quality of work of medical staff who had studied at the school. From there, the training program, teaching methods as well as management support were adjusted to be more appropriate and effective. Or Vinh Medical University created conditions for all Lao students to do clinical internships at hospitals and medical centers. This is an important condition for Lao students to quickly master skills and transfer knowledge from theory to practice.

With these efforts, many generations of Lao students who completed their medical training programs in Vietnam and returned to their country have developed their abilities and participated in caring for and protecting people's health. They have not only become quality human resources for Laos but also become "nuclei" contributing to connecting and nurturing the special friendship between Vietnam and Laos to grow stronger.