Barriers in providing maternal health care services in a mountainous area.

PURPOSE: While programs had been implemented by both the government and non-governmental organizations to address inequity in maternal health care in mountainous areas in Vietnam, the expected outcomes were not fully reached due to existing barriers from health workers mainly providing the health services. This study explores prominent issues faced by health workers in delivering maternal care in Cao Bang, focusing on their impact on the local population's daily lives and overall development. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted with 15 participants working as health managers, commune health workers, commune midwives, and village health workers in selected communes of a mountainous and border district located in the Northeast Cao Bang province. RESULTS: Main barriers include the incompetent healthcare workforce, ineffective use of facility resources, lack of work commitment, and unscientific traditional beliefs. CONCLUSION: Future community programs should implement strict policies, defined rights, and clear responsibilities for health workers handling these obstacles to optimize the quality of maternal health care services in these remote areas.

Barriers to COVID-19 contact tracing: View from frontline healthcare students in Vietnam.

In the context of the complicated continuous waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, contact tracing, along with social distancing and lock-down, proved its crucial role in the suppression of epidemic spreading and management. With the high demand for responsiveness, healthcare students were constantly involved in the process, and challenges have emerged along the way. This study aims to identify the barriers faced by healthcare students while performing the contact tracing task at the frontline of the pandemic. A qualitative study was conducted in July 2021 in a health center in Binh Duong province, Vietnam. A total of 20 healthcare students were invited through random recruitment of participants and interviewed until the principle of saturation was reached. Three main barriers were identified including ineffective work management of local managers, lack of capability of human resources and facilities, and uncooperative attitude of local residents. Given the existing barriers, cooperative, innovative strategies, shared data systems, and timely public awareness campaigns, especially among primary health centers of the healthcare system, are imperative to reduce the workload and optimize the efficacy of healthcare students' support.