Vietnam - Continuing Education Consultant for Field Epidemiology Training Mentors

The Field Epidemiology Training  Program (FETP) has been in existence in Vietnam for more than a decade. A distinguishing feature of this program is that it is an in-service training with emphasis on field work to provide hands-on practice to build competencies in surveillance, outbreak investigations and response to address public health issues. In the latest development, the Vietnam FETP has developed and piloted a revised 12-week training program to provide basic surveillance skills to provincial and district health staff. A distinct feature of this new FETP short course training is mentoring in which more experienced epidemiologists provide technical assistance to FETP trainees to conduct field work and develop reports. The FETP therefore has a plan to network and build the capacities of these mentors by providing various trainings, seminars for mentors as well as organizing technical discussions among mentors on a regular basis.