After taking part in the second competition for medical workers in the Highlands provinces, nurse Soao K’phia, working in village 5 in Da Sar Commune in Lac Duong District continued to encourage people in the village to adopt preventative measures against illnesses in the rainy season.
K’phia said the work of her and her present colleagues are facilitated more than the senior medical workers because traffic is easier and people’s awareness of medicine has been improved much.
With 20 year seniority in working in local medicine sector, head of Administrative Department of Medical Center in Lac Duong Ms. To Thanh Thuy reminded in 1997, Dam Ron region in Dam Rong District had disease but the major path leading to the region suffered serious erosion; as a result, bus could not enter the region; medical workers had to take old car to travel to Phan Rang District in Ninh Thuan Province and Khanh Hoa Province and then returned Dak Lak Province and Lam Dong.
However, Ms. Thuy said medical workers had to crawled to the road into Dung K’no village in Lac Duong because of muddy path and slippery hills.
Worse, doctors and nurses had to come to each house to increase information of disease prevention because each house is located in a hill; Ms. Thuy continued, it took one month for such mission trips.
Despite difficulties, medical workers still made efforts to encourage people to receive treatment yet they fretted about ethnic minority people’ conception of treatment.
Nurse K’Yem, deputy head of medical center in Gia Bac Commune in Di Linh District said ethnic minority people invited witch-doctor for treatment until patient become critical and die, their relative thought that the fate of patient is taken by God.
Working in the medicine sector for 27 years, K’ Yem at first worked in medical center in Gia Bac Commune where 90 percent of locals are ethnic minority.
Beingan ethnic minority person, he understands the local traditions and customs yet he spent years improving people’s awareness. His efforts are rewarded as residents go to medical center when they experience disease.
According to the Department of Health in Lam Dong Province, some 1,133 medical workers are working in 1,148 villages where ethnic minority live. Most of them are local people; hence they have advantages in increasing information of disease prevention and healthcare task.
Medical workers in villages are trained in from three to six month, said Ms. Thuy. They will guide people how to prevent disease and take care of pregnant women at home as well as encourage people to plant herbs.
They are very devoted to their work though they receive bonus of over VND600,000 per person, said Ms. Thuy.
Thanks to their efforts, many critical people are detected to bring to large hospital for treatment .
Directorof the Department of Health in Di Linh District Dr. Le Thanh Quang praised the force because locals usually go to medical clinics when they are sick.
Lately, commune clinics are equipped with scan machines, machines to measure heartbeat contributing to reduce patient overload in big hospitals.
Medical workers in Lam Dong province won the first prize in the competition held by the Ministry of Health. The winning team will sit for the national competition at the end of the year.
