Abstract
Vietnam is facing a shortage of skilled Environmental health workforce. A Training Needs Assessment was conducted to develop a list of environmental health tasks, a list of core competencies and assess the need for a Master of Environmental Health training program in Vietnam. To answer these questions, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Vietnam in 2017, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative study involved a desk review, 29 in-depth interviews, two consultative workshops, and two expert meetings. For the quantitative component, 298 environmental health staff working at different levels completed a structured postal questionnaire. Results showed that different sectors were implementing various environmental health tasks but that there was currently no training program focusing on environmental health in Vietnam. Thirteen core competencies for a Master of Environmental Health were recommended. An urgent need to develop training programs to help building environmental health competencies at the Masters degree level was uniformly expressed. This could be achieved by developing a Master of Public Health with an Environmental Health stream in the short-term and a Master of Environmental Health program in the long-term.
Highlights
Background to the projectMany European countries face great challenges in environment and health (EH)
The project was conceived in line with recent orientations in environmental health, as reflected, for example, in the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2010)
Key stakeholders such as practitioners in public health and environmental agencies at various levels participate in a joint workshop to analyse environmental assessments (EA) of selected projects, plans, programmes or policies outside the health sector and to place them in the context of other major families of health
Summary
Many European countries face great challenges in environment and health (EH). WHO estimates that in its European Region well-tested EH interventions could reduce total death in these countries by almost 20% (Prüss-Üstün & Corvalán, 2006). Based on the experience from the main training event, the follow-up workshops and WHO work with countries on HIA, a framework for the analysis of EH interactions has been developed Key stakeholders such as practitioners in public health and environmental agencies at various levels participate in a joint workshop to analyse EAs of selected projects, plans, programmes or policies outside the health sector and to place them in the context of other major families of health. Based on the analysis and discussions a country specific action plan was developed for enhanced integration of health in EAs and the implementation of standalone HIA if desired (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2013a) This framework is the basis for the following proposal for the inclusion of dedicated EH training modules into the curricula for education, training, and continuous professional development of environment and health professionals. By continuous training in EH it is meant an uninterrupted series of trainings to further qualify environmental and health experts and with regular replication to allow access to new students/participants
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