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In the UK, final-year medical students have the opportunity to complete one of their placements anywhere in the world – I was lucky enough to get accepted into the clinical internship programme in Infectious Diseases at OUCRU and had the best time! 

Why OUCRU? 

Spending my medical elective at OUCRU was the right decision for me. Throughout university, I’ve always had an interest in infectious diseases, but I found the scope of practice within the UK to be limited, and opportunities to take a placement in infectious diseases are also rare.

So, when it came time to plan my elective, it was a no-brainer. I was set on travelling to Southeast Asia, as I had never been before and was drawn to the region’s rich culture and vibrant sights.

It was almost by chance that I came across the clinical internship at OUCRU, and I jumped at the opportunity to apply. The idea of spending six weeks in Ho Chi Minh City kept me motivated throughout my final exams, and I can confidently say it lived up to all my expectations and more.

Inside the wards: complex infections and the global realities of vaccine access 

Upon arriving at OUCRU, I had an induction where I met Dr Leigh Jones, Regional Academic Training Leader at OUCRU & MORU, and Dr Joseph Donovan for the first time. They introduced us to the many friendly faces in the research teams, and we immediately felt welcomed into the team.

Three times a week, we could attend ward rounds on Central Nervous System (CNS) infections at the Viet Anh ward, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD, the host institute of OUCRU), with Dr Joseph. On the other days, we were free to organise meetings and ward rounds with other teams, and we received all the contact information we needed.  

The types of infections that I came across on the Viet Anh ward rounds were unlike anything I had seen in my UK placements. When clinicians discussed the intricacies of these cases, I initially felt like a fish out of water. However, Dr Joseph and the doctors at HTD always took the time to explain to us the science and reasoning behind what we were seeing, and they answered all of our questions, no matter how simple.  

Once a week, we visited the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) or Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where one of the ward doctors kindly guided us through the patients and explained their cases. It was deeply upsetting to see patients, from as young as a week old to those in their eighties, struggling with conditions such as tetanus or measles.  

The doctors at OUCRU explained the challenges of vaccine accessibility in rural provinces, and how many people who are eager to be vaccinated simply don’t have access. 

In the UK, I have never come across a patient with tetanus on the wards, as the national vaccine programme is highly accessible. Seeing patients fighting for their lives with tetanus left me feeling frustrated by the rising anti-vaccine movement in the West. 

Of all the clinical experiences I gained during my time at OUCRU, witnessing the devastating impact of vaccine-preventable diseases on patients is what will stay with me the most, and will likely have the greatest influence on my future practice.

Nandita Shenolikar, Clinical Intern

Dr Leigh Jones also invited us to join her workshop for PhD students on the basics of scientific writing. It helped me build confidence in writing a good manuscript and gave me a better understanding of the research publication landscape. It was an incredible opportunity to meet the PhD students at OUCRU and hear about the interesting and varied projects they were working on. 

At lunchtime, the PhD students would also give us a crash course on traditional Vietnamese food and snacks, which was very useful knowledge to have when going out to eat! 

Exploring Vietnam: friendships, food, and weekend adventures 

Outside of placement, I spent time exploring the city and met amazing people from all over the world, many of whom I’m still in contact with to this day! Even though I came to my elective alone, I left having made friends from OUCRU and my accommodation, so I never felt alone.

I also had the chance to take weekend trips to other parts in the south, such as the Mekong Delta and Vung Tau, and during my final weeks in Vietnam, I travelled to Hanoi and Hoi An. 

Ho Chi Minh City has a piece of my heart, and I’m already counting down the days until I can visit again. From the amazing variety of food from banh mi to bun bo hue, and the rich culture I managed to experience through events such as King’s Day and the 50^th Anniversary of Reunification Day, my elective has truly been one of the best periods of my life so far.   

I am incredibly grateful to OUCRU for giving me the opportunity to undertake my elective placement at their facility. For any medical students interested in working abroad in infectious diseases or visiting this prestigious institution, I couldn’t recommend it more.  

Nandita Shenolikar is a final-year medical student from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom (UK). She completed her clinical internship at OUCRU Ho Chi Minh City in April 2025.

OUCRU provides Vietnamese and international students with the opportunity to experience our unique research environment first-hand, through Clinical and Research internships. Learn more.

As a part of the collaboration between OUCRU, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and The Global Health Network (TGHN), CONNECT was founded with the goal of building a support network, provide equitable access to professional development opportunities and learning materials, tailouring for healthcare workers.

Acknowledge that Vietnam has a unique health industry context of challenging working environment with limited resources, CONNECT has developed a dedicated page, focusing on sharing knowledge, training materials, and practical experiences for healthcare workers and the research community in different health settings in Vietnam. Our objective is to build an open resource and platform that helps healthcare professionals improve communication skills, soft skills, effective patient care, and sustainable professional development.

We would like to invite you to contribute articles or share experiences to our network:

Example topics

• Experience in communicating with colleagues, managers, patients and their families
• Management skills and teamwork in healthcare facilities
• Medical ethics practice, handling sensitive situations
• Mental health care
• Technology applications in healthcare
• Lessons learned and stories from medical practice

Format

Short articles (500-1,000 words) with images or short videos (optional).

Benefits

• Articles will be edited and published on the CONNECT platform.
• English articles approved by TGHN will be assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
• Authors will be credited with their name and affiliated institution, promoting a professional image.
• Outstanding works may be cited in communications materials, conferences, or training activities.

How to submit

• Send articles via email connect@oucru.org
• Email subject: Article contribution for CONNECT – [Author Name]

We look forward to your participation. Together, we can build an open, practical, and useful learning community for Vietnamese healthcare professionals.

CONNECT Vietnam Editorial Team

As part of the project to Improve Hepatitis C Access and Treatment for Underserved Communities, OUCRU’s Public and Community Engagement Group together with Social Science, Ethics, and Implementation Research Group organised a dialogue session between community members, social insurance representatives, and social scientists.  

The session brought together representatives from underserved communities who had contributed to the project through community-based participatory research (CBPR), including people who inject drugs (PWID) , people with limited financial resources, and LGBT+ individuals. They shared their challenges in accessing health insurance for hepatitis C treatment and care.  

Viet Nam has the fifth highest liver cancer incidence and death rate in the world and approximately 8 million people have hepatitis B, C or both⁽¹⁾. Even though Hepatitis C treatment is available in Vietnam, several barriers affect hepatitis C testing, diagnosis, and treatment. These barriers include that testing and diagnosis can only be performed at provincial and central hospitals, people may be asymptomatic or unaware they need testing, and test results often take a long time. High treatment costs before they are covered by insurance are also a big challenge.   

In 2018, Vietnam changed the insurance regulations related to Hepatitis C treatment. Specifically, Hepatitis C patients can receive financial support from health insurance for testing costs, treatment costs using approved medications listed in the insurance catalog, and necessary medical procedures and treatments during treatment (which may be partially or fully covered). Typically, health insurance in Vietnam supports 30% – 50% of the costs for those defined medical services, depending on insurance registration conditions and insurance types⁽²⁾.  

Community members face both systematic and objective challenges.  

The event opened an open discussion for community members to highlight several challenges they face despite recent improvements in social insurance policies.  

Systematic challenges:  

• Complex healthcare system. Vietnam’s multi-tiered hospital system has specific scopes and facilities at each level. For Hepatitis C, lower-tier hospitals may lack diagnostic and treatment capabilities, requiring patient transfers to higher tiers. Insurance coverage varies between tiers with different terms and paperwork, creating additional administrative complexity.  
• Information gaps. Despite the government’s efforts in simplifying the registration and renewal process through the People’s Committees’ ward offices and post offices, many community members remain unaware of these options as well as their HepC treatment benefits under health insurance.  

Objective challenges:  

•  Documentation barriers. One outstanding challenge for marginalised populations is insufficient personal documentation (such as government ID) needed to obtain health insurance. While the government has appointed some certain social enterprises as community representatives to help, it’s a long way to go.  
• Financial constraints. Though social health insurance in Vietnam is designed to be affordable, it remains challenging for many, especially those without stable employment or those facing personal financial burdens such as debts or medical expenses for family members.  
• Medical privacy concerns. The hospital referral process may require patients to disclose HIV status or other chronic conditions in order to access HepC treatment at higher-tier hospitals, compromising their right to privacy.  

“We need to keep the conversation going.”  

Acknowledging the power of listening to community voices, Associate Professor Jennifer Van Nuil, Head of Social Science, Ethics, and Implementation Research Group, emphasised the importance of how CBPR (community-based participatory research method) can help to set up strong support networks within and for the community.  

Ms Hang also expressed appreciation for the community’s initiatives and their clear sharings of their situations as well as emphasised that community discussions like this could significantly help reach underserved populations. 

References:

1. https://www.who.int/vietnam/news/detail/28-07-2024-world-hepatitis-day—viet-nam-pilots-action-to-improve-access-to-hepatitis-c-care
2. https://thuvienphapluat.vn/phap-luat/dieu-tri-benh-viem-gan-c-co-duoc-bao-hiem-y-te–chi-tra-chi-phi-thuoc-dieu-tri-khong-quy-dinh-cua-p-5814.html