Beginning in April 2011, Loyola Vietnam Centre will inaugurate on an annual basis at least one medical rotation in Ho Chi Minh City for fourth year students of Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine. A team of three students will serve in Infectious Diseases at the Hospital of Tropical Disease and two students will serve rotations in Trauma Care at the Trauma and Orthopaedic Hospital. Both locations are teaching hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City.
The rotations were organised in partnership with Pham Ngoc Thach (PNT) University of Medicine, Nursing and Mid-Wifery. The two groups of Loyola medical students will have a Vietnamese doctor as a mentor. Local medical students from PNT will assist them with translations. The Loyola medical students will receive formal academic credit from PNT for the rotations, which are the last they will do before receiving their MD degrees from Loyola University Chicago in June.
The medical rotation programme is one of a number of initiatives of the Loyola Vietnam Centre to assist the development of higher education in Vietnam.