School health care in remote areas: A reality that needs urgent solutions

GD&TĐ - School health care is responsible for protecting, taking care of the health and providing psychological counseling to students. However, many schools, especially those in disadvantaged areas, are lacking staff to take on this task.

Gaps from lack of medical staff

Many schools in Quang Tri province are short of medical staff, making it difficult to provide health care for students. In particular, some schools have not had medical staff assigned to them for many years.

Thanh Kindergarten (in Lia Commune, Quang Tri Province) located in a mountainous area currently does not have a school health worker, nor has it had a recruitment policy; a school official is in charge of this task. Principal Do Thi Diem Ngoc said that recently, the school has coordinated with the commune health station to conduct regular health check-ups for children. If a child is sick, the school contacts the parents to take them to the health station for examination.

Tam Thanh Kindergarten ( Thanh Hoa ) has a majority of students who are ethnic minorities, living in difficult circumstances, and have limited health care conditions at home. Meanwhile, the school does not have a full-time medical staff. According to Principal Ngan Thi Thuong, when children have stomachaches, fevers or minor injuries, the homeroom teacher must take on the role of a concurrent teacher, handling the situation mainly based on experience. For a long time, the school had to rely on the commune health center to support school health work.

Entering the new school year, the school has developed a plan to improve health care for students but still lacks both human resources and funding. “We really hope there will be a policy to arrange specialized medical staff for schools in disadvantaged areas, because this is a really urgent need,” Ms. Ngan Thi Thuong shared.

Lao Bao Secondary School (Lao Bao Commune, Quang Tri Province) has nearly 1,300 students but does not have a full-time medical staff, making it difficult to take care of students' health at school.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Dinh - Principal of Lao Bao Secondary School, emphasized the need for school medical staff and said that if students suddenly fall ill or have health-related problems, the school must contact parents to take the students to the doctor. In case of emergency or unexpected incidents, school teachers must promptly take the students to the medical station.

Quang Chu Kindergarten (Cho Moi, Thai Nguyen) cooperated with the medical station to examine the health of students.

Teachers "take on" the role of medical staff

Dinh Phung Primary School (Huy Giap Commune, Cao Bang Province) has not had a school health worker for many years. Ms. Nguyen Thuy Diep - Principal of the school said that due to lack of professional human resources, the school was forced to assign the task of taking care of students' health to part-time teachers. Although teachers always try to complete their tasks, due to lack of specialized training in school health, when unexpected situations arise, handling them is still limited.

The immediate solution is to strengthen close coordination with the commune health station. Whenever a student shows signs of abnormal health, the school immediately contacts them for timely support. In addition, propaganda and disease prevention work is promoted. The school regularly accesses the electronic information portal of the Cao Bang Department of Health and the Ministry of Health to learn instructional videos and knowledge about preventing seasonal diseases to propagate to students and parents.

Similarly, at Coc Pang Kindergarten (Coc Pang Commune, Cao Bang Province), a teacher was assigned to concurrently work as a school health worker. According to Principal Tran Le Na, the lack of a school health worker affects the ability to provide timely health care for students and puts great pressure on the teaching staff.

“We hope to soon add specialized medical staff to reduce the workload for teachers, thereby improving the quality of comprehensive education and ensuring safety for children,” said Ms. Tran Le Na.

Also assigning teachers to concurrently work as school health workers, Huong Viet Primary & Secondary School (Huong Lap Commune, Quang Tri Province) must coordinate with the commune health station to conduct periodic health checks for students; in case of sudden illness, they must go to the health station for examination. Mr. Vo Hoang Anh - Principal of the school, said that he had proposed to arrange medical staff in the annual reports, but currently there is no staff in charge.

Quang Chu Kindergarten (Cho Moi Commune, Thai Nguyen Province) has a main campus and a separate campus 7km apart. Currently, the entire school only has a medicine cabinet and medical staff. Ms. Dinh Thi Trang - the school's medical staff shared, since being assigned the task, I mainly handle simple issues such as applying oil, disinfecting, and treating external wounds.

The remote location does not have a full-time medical staff. Therefore, the school proactively organized basic first aid training for teachers to promptly respond when unusual situations occur with children. According to Vice Principal Nguyen Thi Hue, although there were temporary solutions, the lack of medical staff at the remote location made us worried, because the students were young, the risk of accidents or health problems arising was inevitable.

Although there are nearly 500 boarding students, Muong Ly Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Thanh Hoa) does not have medical staff. According to Principal Hoang Sy Xuan, when students get sick, the school can only handle the initial treatment, then immediately take them to the commune health center. There are cases where the school is forced to use a car to take students to the emergency room at Muong Lat General Hospital (nearly 30km from the school) in the cold rain, which is very dangerous.

In addition, the lack of medical staff makes it difficult for the school to prevent and control epidemics, as well as implement school health care programs. "This school year, when the Department of Education conducts periodic health check-ups, vaccinations, dengue fever prevention, hand, foot and mouth disease prevention, etc., we do not know where to rely on to effectively implement them," the school principal confided.

In reality, in many schools in the highlands of Thanh Hoa, the medical room is only symbolic, poorly equipped, and lacks basic first aid tools. Meanwhile, attracting medical staff to work in mountainous schools is very difficult due to low remuneration, a lot of work but not stable. In many places, teachers have to "concurrently" teach and work as medical staff, or ask village cadres for support when there is an incident.

Students of Huoi Luong Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Phong Tho, Lai Chau) are taken care of at the medical room.

Proposal to supplement school health staff

This school year, Nam Cha Primary Boarding School (Muong Mo, Lai Chau) has 546 students, of which 413 are boarding students. There is no school health worker, so all health issues of students, especially boarding students, are left to the staff, teachers and security guards (the school has a security guard who has studied Intermediate Medicine).

Mr. Pham Quoc Bao - Principal of the school expressed that the school really needs school health workers to conveniently monitor and take care of the health of students. Currently, when a student is sick, the school only moves to the health station for treatment.

In the border commune of Pa Tan (Lai Chau), only 3/7 educational institutions have school health workers. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy - Head of the Department of Culture and Society of Pa Tan commune said that the role of school health workers is important and the need for health workers is essential. However, currently, schools are not assigned to school health workers, so many schools have difficulty performing their duties.

Last school year, Nam Hang Primary Boarding School (Nam Hang Commune, Lai Chau) had a school health worker from Nam Hang Secondary Boarding School. This year, without a school health worker, health care for boarding students has been difficult.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy - Principal of Nam Hang Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities shared that the school has 273 boarding students, so health care, epidemic prevention, food safety, etc. really need school health workers. We are making a proposal to the commune to arrange school health workers.

Mr. Mac Quang Dung - Director of the Department of Education and Training of Lai Chau province said that determining the management, nurturing and care of boarding and semi-boarding students is an important task, right from the beginning of the school year, the department has issued an official dispatch directing communes, wards and educational institutions to ensure accommodation, meals, food hygiene and safety; at the same time, strengthen health care, prevent school epidemics, and improve physical strength for students.

In the 2024-2025 school year, 100% of schools in the province have organized propaganda and disseminated knowledge on disease prevention, oral health, non-communicable diseases and mental health. Along with that, schools also promote education on proper nutrition and safe food use, contributing to improving students' health and physical condition.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/y-te-hoc-duong-o-vung-kho-thuc-trang-can-loi-giai-cap-bach-post749786.html