Vietnam's new national competency assessment for health workers

Medical and health education in Vietnam

Medicine in Vietnam is a six-year general medicine degree (bác sĩ đa khoa), taught in Vietnamese at around thirty universities and faculties, including Hanoi Medical University and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City. Dentistry also takes six years, pharmacy five, and nursing three to four. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Training set the framework, with accreditation through the national education quality system.

A degree alone does not allow practice. Under the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023, in force from 2024, graduates complete a period of supervised practice of about twelve months, and then obtain a practising certificate (chứng chỉ hành nghề) from the Ministry or provincial health departments. A national practical assessment for the certificate is being introduced step by step. Doctors who want a specialty go to residency (nội trú) or specialist training (CKI, CKII). Foreign degrees must be recognised. Confirm the current rules with the Ministry of Health.

An exam that is arriving, not an exam you can book

Most country pages describe a test with a fixed name, a fee and a calendar. Vietnam is different. The country is in the middle of building its first national licensing assessment, and the useful question is not "how do I register?" but "when does this reach my cohort, and what do I do in the meantime?"

The legal basis is Law No. 15/2023/QH15 on Medical Examination and Treatment. It requires the National Medical Council to assess the practising capacity of applicants before a licence (giấy phép hành nghề) is granted. Under the earlier system, a practice certificate (chứng chỉ hành nghề) was issued on the basis of a recognised degree and a period of supervised practice. Certificates issued before 1 January 2024 are being converted to licences, which are renewed every five years from conversion.

Pilot assessments ran in 2024 and 2025. The World Health Organization has advertised consultancy work on national procedures for medical practice competency assessment toolkits, which suggests the question bank and procedures are still being developed with international support. Take any specific blueprint you see circulating online with caution until the Ministry of Health publishes one.

The roadmap, group by group

The practical reading is simple. A doctor who graduates and applies for a licence by 31 December 2026 is not required to sit the assessment. From 1 January 2027 the assessment applies to applicants, including foreign-trained doctors. That makes the next few months a decision point for final-year students and recent graduates.

Who needs a licensing exam in Vietnam

• New medical graduates: from 2027, yes.
• Foreign-trained doctors: our research places them in the 2027 cohort, with degree recognition as a separate prior step.
• Nurses, midwives and assistant doctors: from 2028, according to the law summary we found.
• Rehabilitation and other technicians: from 2029.
• Pharmacists: no exam. Pharmacy Law 2016, as amended in 2024, issues the pharmacy practice certificate by degree and practice time.

Doctors: the national competency assessment

Regulator: Ministry of Health and the National Medical Council. Expected format: a computer-based multiple-choice test with a clinical skills or OSCE component, planned but not confirmed in the sources we could open. Language: Vietnamese.

What we can say with confidence is who runs it and when it starts. What we cannot yet say is the number of items, the pass mark or the OSCE station design. Those will come from the Council's implementing regulations. If you are preparing now, build broad clinical knowledge across the major specialties, because a licensing assessment of this kind is designed to test safe general practice and not specialty depth.

1. Check your licence deadline. If you can apply before 31 December 2026, find out whether that route suits you.
2. Watch the Ministry of Health for the implementing circular. It will define format, fees and registration.
3. Build a base in core clinical domains. Medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics, emergency care and ethics.
4. Practise timed single-best-answer questions. Format is the one thing you can prepare for before it is published.

Nurses, midwives and rehabilitation staff

The same law covers nurses (điều dưỡng), midwives (hộ sinh) and rehabilitation technicians (kỹ thuật y - phục hồi chức năng), with a multiple-choice test and a practical component planned. Because their dates are later than the doctors', there is more time, and the early exam cycles will be informative: expect lessons from the 2027 doctor cohort to shape the later versions.

Pharmacists

Under Pharmacy Law 2016 (amended 2024), a pharmacist obtains the pharmacy practice certificate (chứng chỉ hành nghề dược) based on a pharmacy degree and practice time. This is not part of the National Medical Council roadmap, so there is no national MCQ exam to prepare for. Foreign graduates go through degree recognition.

What to do while the rules are being finished

The gap between the law and the implementing circulars is the risk. Final-year students should ask their faculty how it expects the 2027 start to affect their graduation year, because the exemption window depends on the date of the licence application and not on the date of graduation. Practising doctors with older certificates should confirm that conversion to a licence is on track before the deadline. Foreign-trained applicants should start degree recognition early, since it is a prerequisite and can take longer than expected. Keep copies of every notice you receive, because early cycles often produce clarifications.

Language and recognition

The assessment will be in Vietnamese, and Vietnamese-language clinical communication is part of practice. There is no mutual-recognition route that replaces the assessment. Vietnam participates in ASEAN mutual recognition arrangements, but these do not waive national licensing. If you trained abroad, the first step is recognition of your degree, followed by the assessment once your group is covered.

Last reviewed October 2026