Introduction Community engagement (CE) is an effective public health strategy for improving health outcomes. There is limited published knowledge about effective approaches to CE in ensuring effective responses to COVID-19 throughout lockdowns, travel restrictions and social distancing. In this paper, we contribute to bridging this gap by highlighting experience of CE in Vietnam, specifically focusing on migrant workers in Vietnam. Methods A cross-sectional qualitative study design was used with qualitative data collection was carried out during August-October 2020. Two districts were purposefully selected from two large industrial zones. Data was collected using in-depth interviews (n = 36) with individuals and households, migrants and owners of dormitories, industrial zone factory representatives, community representatives and health authorities. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis approach. The study received ethics approval from the Hanoi University Institutional Review Board. Results The government’s response to COVID-19 was spearheaded by the multi-sectoral National Steering Committee for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19, chaired by the Vice Prime Minister and comprised different members from 23 ministries. This structure was replicated throughout the province and local levels and all public and private organizations. Different activities were carried out by local communities, following four key principles of infection control: early detection, isolation, quarantine and hospitalization. We found three key determinants of engagement of migrant workers with COVID-19 prevention and control: availability of resources, appropriate capacity strengthening, transparent and continuous communication and a sense of trust in government legitimacy. Discussion and conclusion Our results support the current literature on CE in infection control which highlights the importance of context and suggests that future CE should consider five key components: multi-sectoral collaboration with a whole-of-community approach to strengthen governance structures with context-specific partnerships; mobilization of resources and decentralization of decision making to encourage self-reliance and building of local capacity; capacity building through training and supervision to local institutions; transparent and clear communication of health risks and sensitization of local communities to improve compliance and foster trust in the government measures; and understanding the urgent needs ensuring of social security and engaging all parts of the community, specifically the vulnerable groups.

While the burden of neurological and mental disorders has been drastically increased in Vietnam, the current mental healthcare services do not meet the public demand. In order to determine perceived barriers to the use of mental health services, we conducted a cross-sectional study on 376 elderly people from a rural district in Hanoi, Vietnam. We found that depression may be an important indicator of the need for formal and informal community and home care mental health services. Barriers to mental healthcare access were categorized into 7 groups namely stigma, emotional concerns, participation restrictions, service satisfaction, time constraints, geographic and financial conditions, and availability of services. The most significant barriers are the limited availability of and accessibility to health professionals and services in rural areas. Our study highlights the urgent efforts that need to be made in order to enhance availability of mental healthcare services in rural areas of Vietnam.

This study explored the impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers in Vietnam, using a cumulative risk assessment (CRA) framework which comprises four domains (workplace, environment, individual and community). A cross-sectional study was conducted. Data were collected in 2020 through a self-administered questionnaire with 445 domestic migrant workers in two industrial zones in two northern provinces (Bac Ninh and Ninh Binh) in Vietnam. The majority of migrant workers were female (65.2%), aged between 18 and 29 years old (66.8%), and had high school or higher education level qualifications. Most migrant workers had good knowledge about preventive measures (>90%) and correct practices on COVID-19 prevention (81.1%). Three health risk behaviors were reported: 10% of participants smoked, 25% consumed alcohol and 23.1% were engaged in online gaming. In terms of workplace, occupational working conditions were good. Noise was the most commonly reported hazard (29%). Regarding environment, about two-thirds of migrant workers lived in a small house (<36 m2). Most participants (80.4%) lived with their families. About community domain, many reported low salary or losing their job during January–July, 2020. Most migrants received information about COVID-19. The migrant workers suffered from poor health and low occupational safety, fear of job loss and income cut, poor housing and living conditions and limited access to public services. The holistic approach to address stressors is recommended to improve health and safety of migrant workers.

Background: Patient safety culture is an important measure in assessing the quality of care. There is a growing need to establish a patient safety culture in hospitals. This study explored the perception of health professionals on patient safety culture in 2 public hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam. Method: A mixed-methods study with an online Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) and qualitative data collection was conducted in Hanoi. The HSOPSC was validated in Vietnam before using it. Results: A total of 626 health professionals, including physicians and nurses, were involved in the survey, and 49 of them participated in in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The average positive response of patient safety culture composites was high at 85.2% and varied from 49.4% to 97.9%. The strongest areas were teamwork within units (91.3%) and organizational learning/continuous improvement (88.4%), and the areas that needed improvement were staffing (49.4%) and nonpunitive response to error (53.1%). Conclusion:The centralized incident reporting, management with peer involvement on event reporting, and continuous quality improvement should be routinely embedded by hospital leaders down to unit managers and all staff.

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Patient safety culture is a vital component in ensuring high quality and safe patient care. Assessment of staff perception on existing hospital patient safety culture (PSC) is the first step to promote PSC. This paper is aimed to assess the patient safety culture in 1 big public autonomous general hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. This cross-sectional study surveyed 638 healthcare professional utilizing the validated (Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture [HSOPSC]) in an online format. This study adhered to STROBE guidelines. The positive response rate was high, with a percentage of 74.2. The strongest areas are teamwork within units (91.3%) and organizational learning/continuous improvement (88.4%). The areas for improvement are staffing (49.4%) and non-punitive response to error (53.1%). Hospital administrators should strengthen the culture of patient safety by formulating strategies and implementing interventions with emphasis on adequate staffing and promoting blame-free working environment.

This study described the prevalence of suicidal behaviors and depression among adolescents in Hanoi, Vietnam, and examines the associated factors. In 2019, a school-based survey was conducted in three high schools in Hanoi and 661 high students were included into the study. We found that the prevalence of 12-month suicidal thoughts, suicide plans, and suicide attempts were 14.2%, 5.5%, and 3.0% respectively. Notably, the depression score mean was 16.1±4.9, among major predictors of suicidal ideation. Therefore, developing psychological care services in school is imperative to the early detection of mental disorders and the prevention of suicidal behaviors for the students.

The ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) model has been introduced and implemented in several hospitals and health programs in Vietnam since 2015. In 2018, Vietnam National Children’s Hospital (VNCH) officially implemented the ECHO model to provide continuing medical education (CME) credits on pediatrics topics for medical staff in its satellite hospitals and health centers in the Northern region of Vietnam. This paper presents preliminary results of the ECHO program at VNCH. Methods included pre- and post-program assessments of pediatricians’ clinical knowledge, self-efficacy, and professional satisfaction. The analysis compared the differences between pre/post scores descriptively. Knowledge of participants increased by 22.5% points on average. More than 90% of Project ECHO-Pediatrics participants experienced increased confidence. Overall, there was an improvement in participants’ self-efficacy in the post-training compared to the pre-training (range 14.7%-22.6% difference from pre-training). All participants improved on their results in the clinical test immediately after the training and maintained it after 3 months. The study demonstrated the ability Project ECHO to improve healthcare worker knowledge and satisfaction.