Pham Tien Nam, Nguyen Hanh Dung, Nguyen Tuan Hung, Vu Thi Minh Nguyet, Le Thi Thu, Nguyen Van Trung, Nguyen Khac Liem
{"title":"Addressing shortages of hospital social workers in Vietnam: Findings from a national survey.","authors":"Pham Tien Nam, Nguyen Hanh Dung, Nguyen Tuan Hung, Vu Thi Minh Nguyet, Le Thi Thu, Nguyen Van Trung, Nguyen Khac Liem","doi":"10.1080/00981389.2025.2456029","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Studies on the hospital social work workforce in global contexts remain unexplored. This study aims to describe the workforce status for hospital social work in Vietnam. This study involved 676 central, provincial, and district hospitals in Vietnam. The number of hospital social workers in Vietnam increased 2.71 times, from 591 people in 2016 to 1,605 people in 2020. However, Vietnam continues to face challenges in the workforce for hospital social work, such as inadequate staffing patterns and poor compensation packages, and the proportion of hospital social workers professionally trained at the master's level in social work is still limited. Moreover, hospitals at central and provincial levels have a better workforce for hospital social work than district hospitals. The study provides policy suggestions to improve the quality of hospital social services by ensuring adequate hiring and compensation of fully trained social workers.</p>","PeriodicalId":47519,"journal":{"name":"Social Work in Health Care","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Work in Health Care","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2025.2456029","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL WORK","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Studies on the hospital social work workforce in global contexts remain unexplored. This study aims to describe the workforce status for hospital social work in Vietnam. This study involved 676 central, provincial, and district hospitals in Vietnam. The number of hospital social workers in Vietnam increased 2.71 times, from 591 people in 2016 to 1,605 people in 2020. However, Vietnam continues to face challenges in the workforce for hospital social work, such as inadequate staffing patterns and poor compensation packages, and the proportion of hospital social workers professionally trained at the master's level in social work is still limited. Moreover, hospitals at central and provincial levels have a better workforce for hospital social work than district hospitals. The study provides policy suggestions to improve the quality of hospital social services by ensuring adequate hiring and compensation of fully trained social workers.
期刊介绍:
Devoted to social work theory, practice, and administration in a wide variety of health care settings, this journal gives you the tools to improve your practice while keeping you up-to-date with the latest crucial information. Social Work in Health Care is edited by Gary Rosenberg, PhD, one of the most respected leaders in health social work. This creative, lively journal brings you the most important articles on research, leadership, clinical practice, management, education, collaborative relationships, social health policy, and ethical issues from the most respected experts in the field. The journal"s special issues comprehensively discuss a single pertinent health care theme.