Thực trạng nhân lực y tế trường học tại các trường tiểu học công lập thuộc 35 tỉnh, thành phố của Việt Nam năm 2024

School health is universally recognized as a foundational element of health-promoting schools, playing a vital role in safeguarding student well-being and fostering conducive learning environments. In Vietnam, national policies underscore the importance of robust school health services, yet previous regional assessments suggest inconsistencies in the deployment, qualifications, and task implementation of the school health workforce. This highlights a critical gap in comprehensive national data. To address this, the current cross-sectional descriptive study aims to thoroughly delineate the contemporary status of human resources and the scope of school health activities within public primary schools across 35 provinces and municipalities for the 2023-2024 academic year, thereby providing crucial evidence to inform future policy development for primary education in Vietnam.

Policymakers, public health officials, educators, school administrators, and researchers interested in school health and workforce development in primary education in Vietnam.

This study conducted a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of the school health workforce (SHW) and activities in 4,935 public primary schools across 35 provinces of Vietnam during the 2023-2024 academic year. Data collected in 2025 via statistical forms were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 25. The findings reveal significant deficiencies in both the quantity and capacity of SH human resources. Only 52.9% of schools had full-time SH staff, with 32.9% relying on part-time personnel and 4.9% contracting local health facilities. The workforce composition is predominantly medical assistants (56.5%) and nurses (27.5%), with physicians comprising a mere 0.5%, indicating a limited capacity for handling complex medical issues. Compliance with mandated school health training (Circular 28/2023/TT-BYT) was notably low across all personnel types, particularly for part-time and contracted staff. While essential tasks like health monitoring and environmental surveillance were commonly performed, resource-demanding duties such as medical examinations, treatment, and organizing school meals had significantly lower implementation rates, with only 23.8% of schools executing all 12 defined tasks. Although dedicated staffing models showed slightly higher rates of comprehensive task performance, the difference was not substantial. The study concludes that the public primary school health system requires urgent policy interventions focusing on strengthening the dedicated health workforce and providing systematic professional training to enhance the overall quality of student healthcare in Vietnam. These insights offer valuable implications for refining school health policies and practices.