Addressing shortages of hospital social workers in Vietnam: Findings from a national survey

Studies on the hospital social work workforce in global contexts remain unexplored. This study aims to describe the workforce status for hospital social work in Vietnam. This study involved 676 central, provincial, and district hospitals in Vietnam. The number of hospital social workers in Vietnam increased 2.71 times, from 591 people in 2016 to 1,605 people in 2020. However, Vietnam continues to face challenges in the workforce for hospital social work, such as inadequate staffing patterns and poor compensation packages, and the proportion of hospital social workers professionally trained at the master's level in social work is still limited. Moreover, hospitals at central and provincial levels have a better workforce for hospital social work than district hospitals. The study provides policy suggestions to improve the quality of hospital social services by ensuring adequate hiring and compensation of fully trained social workers.